London pre-open: Stocks seen down as investors mull China trade, UK GDP data

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to edge down at the open on Thursday as investors mulled Chinese trade data and the latest UK GDP reading. The FTSE 100 was called to open 12 points lower at 7,812.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "In an encouraging development for the global economy earlier today the latest China trade numbers showed that the Chinese economy started to gain momentum in March, as exports surged by 14.8%, the first rise since September, while imports declined a less than expected -1.4%, suggesting that domestic demand was starting to recover after months of lockdowns.

"Despite this encouraging development, Asia markets had a mixed session, and this looks set to translate into a mixed open."

On home shores, data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK economy stagnated in February. There was zero growth, versus 0.4% growth in January; analysts had been expecting a 0.1% increase.

Capital Economics said: "The stagnation in real GDP in February means the economy probably avoided recession in Q1. But it also increases the chances that the Bank of England will need to raise interest rates further to generate the economic weakness required to reduce inflation all the way to 2.0%.

"Some of the weakness in GDP in February was due to the widespread strikes by civil servants, teachers and train workers that month. They contributed to falls in public admin output (-1.1% m/m), education output (-1.7% m/m) and transport output (-0.5% m/m)."

In corporate news, supermarket chain Tesco said it expected to post flat profits this year and announced a £750m share buyback as annual earnings fell last year after it absorbed the cost on inflation instead of passing it on to customers.

The company said group pre-tax profit halved to £1bn. Retail adjusted operating profit fell 6.3% to £2.49bn.

Tobacco company Imperial Brands said it was on track to deliver earnings in line with expectations and low single-digit constant currency net revenue growth.

The company said strong combustible pricing was offset by temporarily increased volume declines against a prior period which benefited from Covid-related changes in buying patterns.

"We expect a stronger net revenue performance in the second half, supported by a normalisation of volume trends and price increases taken during the first half. As expected, our exit from Russia will result in first-half Group net revenue being slightly below last year on a constant currency basis," Imperial said.