London pre-open: Stocks seen up after Wall Street gains

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday following strong gains on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open up around 45 points at 6,954.

Investors will be mulling news that chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is planning to bring forward the publication of his debt-reduction proposals to the end of this month, from 23 November.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: "The British pound saw another positive day yesterday, and traders are pushing the currency higher today as there is more and more optimism building up about the UK's economy after the lawmakers have made a U-turn on their mini-budget. In addition to this, traders are hoping that the government's main budget will be designed to bring the country back on track and not favour the rich.

"The chancellor of the Exchequer finally threw in the towel and yielded to all the political pressure and decided that it was no longer possible to continue to fight his vision of the mini-budget. The 45p in the pound on earnings above 150,000 is here to stay, and the hope is that this will put an end to the country's sky-high borrowing cost."

In corporate news, high street bakery chain Greggs said that total sales were up 14.6% over the 13 weeks ended 1 October, putting it on track to meet full-year expectations.

Greggs said it continued to trade well over the third quarter, with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops rising 9.7% year-on-year.

However, the FTSE-100 listed group stated year-on-year growth moderated in August given the particularly strong "staycation" effect seen in 2021.

UK insurer Legal & General said it expected full-year operating profit growth to be up in line with the first half of 8% and annual capital generation of £1.8bn.

"We expect interest rate increases to continue to have a positive impact on our earnings per share and on our solvency coverage ratio," the company said.