London pre-open: Stocks to fall amid tech selloff

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Friday following heavy losses on Wall Street, after tech shares sold off as Amazon tumbled on AI spending fears. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 45 points lower.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "It's just another day, another big tech earnings announcement, another set of revenue beats, another pledge to invest massively in AI and infrastructure - and another negative market reaction.

"This time, it was Amazon's turn to get refused by investors. The company's revenue grew 14% year-over-year - better than expected - with AWS revenue up 24%, reaching about $35.6 billion for the quarter - the fastest growth in about 13 quarters. Profit came a touch below expectations. But what triggered the 11% slump in after-hours trading was the pledge of a huge $200 billion spending plan, roughly $50 billion more than expected, which will weigh on profits.

"As such, Amazon joins the list of Big Tech companies that don't get the approval to spend this much. The market says no - this is too much spending."

On home shores, the latest figures from Halifax showed that house prices rebounded in January to a record high.

House prices rose 0.7% on the month following a 0.5% decline in December. On the year, prices were up 1% in January following a 0.4% increase the month before.

The average price of a home stood at £300,077, up from £297,938 in December and above £300,000 for the first time.

Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said: "While that's undoubtedly a milestone figure, and activity levels show a resilient market, affordability remains a challenge for many would-be buyers.

"Broader economic conditions continue to provide some support. Wage growth has been outpacing property price inflation since late 2022, steadily improving underlying affordability. That's a positive trend for buyers, and the long-term health of the market.

"And we're now seeing more mortgage deals below 4%. If inflation continues to ease, there should be further gradual reductions as the year goes on. "All in all, we still think house prices are likely to edge up between 1% and 3% this year."

In corporate news, high-performance polymers business Victrex reported a softer start to the year, with first‑quarter revenues and volumes declining as strength in its energy and industrials unit was offset by weaker trading in its transport, VARs and medical division.

Average selling prices were 2% lower at £73 per kilogram in the three months ended 31 December, with Victrex noting the early part of the year reflected a subdued December and a sales mix that weighed modestly on performance.

Q1 volumes fell 4% to 858 tonnes, while revenues slipped 6% to £62.4m.

Derwent London said it had exchanged contracts to sell an office and retail property on London's Tottenham Court Road for £32.6m to a joint venture between Purestone Capital and BPS London.

The sale is at a premium to June 2025 book value and is scheduled to complete in June this year.

The building contains offices across six floors plus four ground floor retail units and generates income of £1.7m, Derwent said.