London pre-open: Stocks to edge down after Monday's selloff

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to edge lower at the open on Tuesday following a heavy selloff in the previous session on the back of concerns about the SVB collapse. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around eight points at 7,540.

Investors were mulling over the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, which showed that the unemployment rate was stable on the quarter in the three months to January, at 3.7%. Economists were expecting a slight uptick to 3.8%.

Average earnings growth excluding bonuses fell to 6.5% from a year earlier, down from 6.7% in the previous three-month period.

The figures also revealed that the economic inactivity rate declined by 0.2 percentage points on the quarter, to 21.3%.

Meanwhile, the number of working days lost to strike action was 220,000 in January, down from 822,000 in December 2022.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: "The number of working days lost to strikes fell in January from the very high level seen in December. Nevertheless, many days were still lost, with education the most affected sector."

In December 2022 to February 2023, the number of job vacancies fell by 51,000 on the quarter to 1.22m. This was the eighth consecutive decline and the ONS said it reflects "uncertainty across industries", with survey respondents citing economic pressures as a factor in holding back recruitment.

In corporate news, tech venture capital investor Molten Ventures said it expected no impact from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, after the lender's UK arm was rescued by HSBC.

The company confirmed SVB UK provided 40% of both Molten's current undrawn credit of up to £60m and a £90m term loan.

"Furthermore, Molten has a strong cash position, with gross cash balances currently in excess of £30m of which less than £1m is currently deposited with SVB UK," the company said.

It added that it had "worked closely with its portfolio companies to further improve the position over recent days".

Pharmaceutical giant GSK announced positive results from a phase three trial of its MenABCWY combination vaccine candidate, which proved safe, tolerable, and immunogenic in healthy individuals aged 10 to 25 years.

The vaccine demonstrated non-inferiority for all five Neisseria meningitides serogroups and was well tolerated with a safety profile consistent with licensed vaccines. In a separate development, GSK's drug Nucala, or mepolizumab, was accepted for review as a maintenance treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma in China, which affects an estimated 46 million adults in the country.