London pre-open: Stocks seen lower ahead of Truss speech

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following strong gains in the previous session, as investors eyed prime minister Liz Truss's keynote speech at the Tory conference. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 22 points at 7,064.0.

Investors will also be eyeing an eye on an OPEC+ meeting on supply.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, noted that according to the latest reports, OPEC could announce a production of 2m barrels today.

"A big decline in OPEC supplies may not necessarily trigger a price rally, as no one is happy to see energy prices spike again. Higher energy prices are bad for the central bank expectations as they fuel the inflation expectations," she said.

"The higher the energy prices, the sharper the central banks must kill demand to pull the prices lower. Therefore, a big cut in OPEC production could well backfire, and trigger profit taking and fall in oil prices today."

In UK corporate news, retailer Tesco said it expected current year profits to be at the lower end of guidance as "significant uncertainties" persisted during the cost-of-living crisis.

The company said it expects full year retail adjusted operating profit of between £2.4bn and £2.5bn as it said profits fell 65% to £413m in the six months to August 27.

Asset and energy support services group Sureserve has successfully wrapped up a £5.4m contract with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to supply the UK Ministry of Defence with solar photovoltaic technology.

Sureserve said that its CorEnergy subsidiary, acquired by the group in December 2021, had won the contract after bidding via an Aaron Services framework.