London pre-open: Stocks seen down; shop price inflation eases

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to edge down at the open on Tuesday despite a solid session on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open 10 points lower at 7,317.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Despite yesterday's strong US session markets here in Europe look set to open slightly lower as we head into the final trading day of October and look ahead to tomorrow's Federal Reserve rate meeting as well as a tsunami of US economic data this week, we'll also be getting an insight into how the economy in Europe has fared over the last three months."

Eurozone third-quarter GDP figures are due out at 100o GMT.

Investors will also be mulling the latest data out of China. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.5 in October from 50.2 a month earlier, coming in below the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion and missing expectations for a reading of 50.2.

Meanwhile, the non-manufacturing PMI declined to 50.6 in October from 51.7 from in September.

On home shores, data showed that shop price inflation fell in October to its lowest level since August 2022.

According to the British Retail Consortium-NielsenIQ shop price index, annual inflation eased to 5.2% from 6.2% in September. This marked the fifth consecutive month of deceleration.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: "Imported goods saw higher levels of inflation due to a weaker pound, still-high producer costs and emerging trade frictions, while prices for some domestically produced foods, such as fruit, were lower compared to last month.

"Prices of children's and baby clothing also fell as retailers continued to support families as the colder weather descended.

"Retailers have been battling to keep prices down for their customers in the face of rising transport costs, high interest rates and other input costs. To keep inflation heading in the right direction, it is vital that the Government does not burden businesses with unnecessary new costs.

"Without immediate action from the Chancellor, retailers have an additional £470m per year on their business rates bill, jeopardising the progress made. Ultimately, it's consumers who would pay the price for the rising rates bill."

In corporate news, oil giant BP announced a new $1.5bn share buyback after it reported an underlying replacement cost profit of $3.3bn for the third quarter.

The bottom line result was an improvement from the $2.6bn recorded in the second quarter but well below the $8.2bn in the third quarter of 2022, which benefitted from a massive $8bn-plus positive accounting adjustment.

Precision instrumentation and controls company Spectris said it expects full-year profits to be at the top end of forecasts after continued strong sales growth and margin improvements in the third quarter.

Like-for-like sales were up 11% year-on-year in the three months to September, though the impact of disposals and foreign exchange reduced the headline growth rate to 5%.

Sales totalled £349.2m, up £16.6m on the year before. Strong progress on margins means that adjusted operating profits are expected to come in at the upper half of the guidance range of £250m to £265m.

Coca-Cola HBC reported a strong performance in its third-quarter trading update, driven by the execution of its 24/7 strategy.

The beverage bottler said organic revenue increased 15.3% in the quarter and 17% year-to-date, with notable growth in categories such as sparkling, energy and coffee.

Despite some foreign exchange challenges in emerging markets, the company gained further value share in the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) and sparkling segments, with broad-based organic revenue growth across segments, including a strong performance in emerging markets, particularly in Egypt.