London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on weak Asian cues

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following a downbeat session in Asia and mixed performance on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 30 points.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "All eyes are on a series of Eurozone inflation updates that are due to hit the ground starting from today.

"Right now, the divergence between a more hawkish Fed - that debates the necessity of another hike - and the European Central Bank (ECB) - that debates the possibility of back-to-back rate cuts in summer - remain supportive of a downside correction in the EURUSD.

"The major risk to the bearish euro outlook is Friday's US core PCE data. If the April rise comes in at 0.2% on a monthly basis - as pencilled in by analysts on a Bloomberg survey - it would be the smallest advance for the measure for this year and could help temper the Fed hawks."

In corporate news, Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services said it had reached an agreement with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky on a takeover of the 500 year old company worth up to £5.28bn.

Kretinsky's EP Group is offering 360p a share along with the 2p final dividend for the year to March 31 and a special 8p dividend to be paid if the deal becomes unconditional. He has also pledged to maintain Royal Mail's guarantee of services six days a week for five years.

First-quarter profits at Bank of Georgia were up by more than a fifth, helped by favourable macro conditions and the recent acquisition of Armenia's Ameriabank. Adjusted profit came in at 369.1m Georgian lari (£107m), up 22.5% on last year, with net interest income rising 17.7% to GEL437.8m.

Adjusted return on average equity rose to 27.7%, up from 26.7% in the fourth quarter but down slightly on the 27.9% recorded the year before - though still well above the bank's medium-term target of 20%.

"You are now seeing the group's balance sheet in its new shape, with assets close to $16bn at the end of March, comprising two leading, top-of-mind universal banks in Georgia and Armenia," said chief executive Archil Gachechiladze in a note to shareholders.