London pre-open: Stocks set for more losses

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for more losses on Tuesday despite a positive close on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 25 points lower.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said the "Trump trade" is not necessarily positive for European stocks, "as who says Trump says higher tariffs and increased trade tensions".

"That's one thing. Then there is the China trade where China's inability to print sufficiently strong growth weighs on energy and commodities that are heavily represented in FTSE 100 and on the European luxury stocks," she said.

"As such, Shell and Total Energies for example fell on the announcement of a weak growth number from China yesterday while their US peers gained on expectation that Trump will go slow on the climate-friendly policies and give support to the traditional energy businesses."

In corporate news, online grocer and technology company Ocado reported narrower interim losses as revenues grew across all its divisions.

Losses before tax came in at £154m from a loss of £289.5m for the 26 weeks to June 2. Core earnings more than trebled to £71.2m, while sales were up 12.6% to £1.54bn.

B&M European Value Retail reported a 2.4% increase in group revenues for the first quarter, driven by volume growth and a disciplined store opening program.

The FTSE 100 company opened 19 new stores in the UK and two in France, with strong performance and plans for further openings throughout the year.

Despite a slight decrease in like-for-like sales due to high comparatives and unseasonal weather, the firm maintained strong margins and said it was well-positioned for continued profitable growth, supported by robust logistics and strong product availability.

Precision measurement tools group Spectris is spending $630m to buy US-based Micromeritics Instrument Corporation to bolster its offering in particle characterisation for advanced materials analysis.

Spectris Micromeritics is a high-growth, high-margin business which will be immediately accretive to its earnings.