London pre-open: Stocks to nudge up after long weekend

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to nudge higher at the open on Tuesday following a positive Asian session, as traders returned to their desks after the long weekend. The FTSE 100 was called to open up around five points at 7,344.

Asian markets rallied for a second day in a row, after China unveiled strategic measures to boost its stock markets on Monday.

On home shores, investors were digesting the latest data from the British Retail Consortium/NielsenIQ, which showed that annual shop price inflation eased to 6.9% in August from 7.6% in July. Meanwhile, food inflation fell to 11.5% from 13.4%.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: "Better news for consumers as shop price inflation in August eased to its lowest level since October 2022. This was driven by falling food inflation, particularly for products such as meat, potatoes and some cooking oils. These figures would have been lower still had the Government not increased alcohol duties earlier this month."

In corporate news, distribution specialist Bunzl upgraded guidance for annual adjusted operating profits as it reported a rise in half-year earnings.

The company reported interim pre-tax profit of £317m, up 6.9%, with revenue up 4.5% to £5.9bn.

"Given performance year to date, we upgrade our 2023 adjusted operating profit guidance, driven by a meaningful increase in operating margin expectations," the company said.

"We now expect adjusted operating profit to be moderately higher than in 2022 at constant exchange rates, with operating margin remaining strong and moderately higher than that achieved in the prior year."

Elsewhere, British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said its La Granja copper project in Peru is one step closer to production after the completion of a joint venture transaction with First Quantum Minerals.

The joint venture, first announced back in March, has seen First Quantum acquire a 55% stake in the project for $105m.

First Quantum will now operate the project and initially focus on finishing a feasibility study. La Granja, based in Cajamarca, Northern Peru, is said to be a long-life operations with an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 4.32bn tonnes at 0.51 copper.

Liontrust Asset Management confirmed that its offer for all publicly-held shares of GAM Holding was unsuccessful, with only 33.45% of GAM shares tendered by the end of the extended main offer period on 23 August.

As a result, there would be no additional acceptance period, and the offer would not be settled.

Liontrust also said it retained the right to demand immediate repayment of the £8.9m plus interest it provided to GAM through the tranche 1 facility, 30 days after its announcement.