London pre-open: Stocks to fall; Anglo to combine with Canada's Teck Resources

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Tuesday, with French politics still in focus after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a confidence vote. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 20 points.

Danske Bank said: "The Elysee Palace has announced that Macron will appoint a new prime minister in the coming days, aligning with our baseline scenario.

"This eliminates the immediate downside risk of a snap election. However, political uncertainty is expected to persist, as a new government will still have a hard time passing a budget, particularly with significant spending cuts."

On home shores, figures released earlier by the British Retail Consortium showed that retail sales grew at a solid pace in August, capping off a strong summer for retailers with activity receiving a boost from warm weather and an interest-rate cut.

Total retail sales increased by 3.1% compared with last year, the BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor showed.

That followed a 2.5% annual increase in July and a 3.1% gain in June, and was comfortably ahead of the 12-month average growth rate of 2%.

Food sales were up 4.7% on last year, accelerating from the 3.9% gain in July, though this was largely down to inflation, with food prices up 4% in August. Non-food sales growth also picked up to 1.8% from 1.4%, the BRC said.

Meanwhile, in-store non-food sales were 1.3% higher, while online non-food sales gained 2.7%.

"Sunny weather and an interest rate cut helped August round off a solid summer of sales," said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.

"Computing performed well as parents readied children for the new academic year, and gaming continued to show strong sales. Furniture also did better for the second month in a row, following several months of falling sales. New school clothing and footwear did not sell as well as expected, as some families opted for second-hand purchases."

Despite the strong summer, Dickinson said retailers were cautious heading into the key autumn-winter selling period, calling on the government to help improve consumer and business confidence.

"With the later-than-expected Budget falling just days before Black Friday, many are uneasy about how consumer confidence and spending could be impacted by tax rise speculation in the run-up to Christmas," she said.

In corporate news, Anglo American and Canada's Teck Resources said they had agreed a merger "of equals" to form the Anglo Teck group headquartered in Canada and expected to offer investors more than 70% exposure to copper.

In a joint statement, the two miners said the deal was expected to produce annual synergy savings of $800m.

Homewares retailer Dunelm reported modest full-year top-line growth as it continued to progress on its digital and store expansion strategy.

Dunelm said revenues had risen 3.8% to £1.77bn in the year ended 28 June, while pre-tax profits ticked up 2.7% to £211.0m.

Gross margins improved by 60 basis points to 52.4%, supported by disciplined buying and strong sell-through of seasonal ranges. Diluted earnings per share increased 3.2% to 76.8p.