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London pre-open: Stocks seen up on positive Asian cues

By Michele Maatouk

Date: Monday 06 Jul 2020

London pre-open: Stocks seen up on positive Asian cues

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Monday, tracking gains in Asia, despite a spike in coronavirus cases sparking local lockdowns in the UK and Spain, among other countries.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 73 points higher at 6,230.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong are showing impressive gains. There has been a jump in trading volumes in China, and European equity benchmarks are tipped to open higher as a result.

"The latest services data from China and Europe point to a continuation in the rebound in activity.

"It is clear that things are improving from an economic point of view, but the health situation could be a different story. There have been local lockdowns in Leicester, Melbourne, and in parts of Spain too. There are concerns that this sort of thing could become common."

On the data front, Markit's construction PMI for June is at 0930 BST.

In corporate news, housebuilder Barratt said its current forward order book was strong with sales ahead of the same time last year as it emerged from the coronavirus lockdown that closed all its sites.

The company said it had an order book of 14,326 homes at a value of £3.25bn at the end of June, compared with 11,419 homes a year ago worth £2.6bn.

Barratt added that cash at year end was £305m, down from £765.7m, equivalent to around 25% of the owned land bank. It was also paying back money from the government's employee furlough scheme.

Lloyds Banking Group said chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio planned to leave the bank in a year's time as it announced that Robin Budenberg would take over as chairman in early 2021.

Insurer Aviva said chief executive Maurice Tulloch had stepped down for family health reasons with immediate effect and replaced by Amanda Blanc. Tulloch was appointed in March 2019 after joining the firm in 1992.

The company said Blanc would receive a basic annual salary of £1m. Currently an independent non-executive director at Aviva, she also chairs the customer, conduct and reputation board committee.

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