London pre-open: Stocks seen lower; retail sales tumble

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Friday after disappointing retail sales figures, and as investors eyed the release of a slew of UK data points. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points lower.

Industry data released earlier showed that retail footfall tumbled in November, hit by stormy weather, weak consumer confidence and tough comparatives.

The latest Sensormatic footfall monitor from the British Retail Consortium showed total UK footfall fell 4.5% in November year-on-year.

Within that, high street footfall slid 3.7%, in retail parks it fell 1.1% - a notable reversal of October's 4.8% uplift - and in shopping centres there was a 6.1% slump.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, called the fall "disappointing".

She continued: "A later-than-usual Black Friday and low consumer confidence meant customers were hesitant to hit the shops. Some northern cities also suffered particularly badly due to Storm Bert, which caused travel disruption towards the end of the month."

The data covers the four weeks to 23 November, but the discount-heavy Black Friday falls on 29 November this year.

Dickinson continued: "Retailers remain hopeful that the Black Friday and Christmas sales will help to turn around the declining footfall seen through most of 2024."

Andy Sumpter, EMEA retail consultant for Sensormatic, said: "Consumer confidence remains volatile, perhaps not helped by post-Budget spending jitters and shoppers withholding festive purchases, opting instead to shop around for the best prices or hold out for further discounting.

"This lacklustre footfall will have come as a blow for many retailers, who would have been counting of getting early Christmas trading results under their belts before the start of advent.

"However, these figures do not include Black Friday and the Saturday of the Black Friday weekend - tipped as one of the busiest days for store shopping during peak trading - which will hopefully jump start seasonal shopping.

"Now all eyes turn to December, where retailers hope to make up for lost ground and turn around their festive fortunes."

Still to come, net lending, consumer credit and mortgage approvals data for October are all due at 0930 GMT.

In corporate news, Canadian automotive parts maker ABC Technologies said it had reached a deal to buy TI Fluid Systems for £1.03bn.

ABC, backed by private equity fund Apollo, said it would pay 200p a share in cash after having previous offers rejected. TI Fluid shares closed 5.7% higher at 189.2p on Thursday.

AIM-listed investment banking group Peel Hunt said it swung to a first-half profit on the back of a big jump in revenues as the business capitalised on improving market conditions.

Group revenues were up 26% year-on-year at £53.8m in the six months to 30 September, helped by the company executing two IPOs, collecting material M&A fees and generating increased trading revenues.

Adjusted pre-tax profit was £4.6m, compared with a loss of £0.5m the year before.