London pre-open: Stocks seen up after positive US session

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Wednesday following an upbeat session on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open 20 points higher at 7,618.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "After the strong finish in the US last night, European markets look set to open higher, with Asia markets also broadly positive."

He added: "Having got the week off to a positive start on Monday, European stocks gave up some of their gains in what was a negative session across the board yesterday.

"Sentiment continues to remain extremely fickle, prone to the ebb and flow of inflation expectations, followed by fears that central banks will over react in combatting said inflation, which is then followed by concern about what that might do to global growth.

"This argument which the market appears to be having with itself, over whether we see a recession, or a soft landing is likely to become a lot clearer, over the next week or so, starting with US CPI on Friday, followed by PPI and the Fed meeting a week from now."

In corporate news, information technology consultancy Aveva delivered "solid" full-year results on Wednesday, with annual recurring revenues up 10.2% at £768.7m and statutory group revenues up 44.5% year-on-year at £1.18bn.

However, Aveva still reported a full-year pre-tax loss from operations of £6.5m, primarily due to the amortisation of £226.1m in intangible assets - a marked difference when compared to the pre-tax profit of £36.6m recorded in FY21.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air narrowed annual losses to almost break even as the travel industry bounced back from the Covid pandemic.

The company reported a core loss of €19m, compared to €182.8m loss a year earlier. Planned capacity growth for the first two quarters of the current fiscal year is more than 30% and 40% respectively.