London pre-open: Stocks seen higher after US gains
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 23 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Wednesday following an upbeat session on Wall Street, as investors eyed the latest readings on the UK manufacturing and services sectors.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 57 points higher at 5,886.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "After the sea of red that characterised Monday's sell-off, we saw a little bit of a turnaround on Tuesday, though not to the extent that we got anywhere close to changing the narrative of an ever-increasing concern about the economic outlook heading into year end.
"The S&P500 managed to make the best of Monday's gains rising over 1%, however these gains were primarily driven by the big tech stocks of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.
"Other smaller technology stocks like Zoom, Pinterest, Docusign and Adobe were also notable in seeing fairly decent gains.
"This strong performance on the part of US stocks is likely to translate into a similarly positive open for European stocks this morning, however there is rising concern that in light of surging infection rates across Europe, and the beginnings of a rise in hospitalisations, that the economic rebound from the lockdown lows is set to finish the year with a whimper."
On the UK data front, Markit's manufacturing and services PMIs for September are due at 0930 BST.
In corporate news, hazard detection company Halma said it expected 2021 adjusted pre-tax profits to be up to 10% lower and more weighted to the second half.
The company, said there had been a "significant variation" in demand in its individual end-markets and geographic regions as it grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic
"The USA and mainland Europe regions have delivered the most resilient overall trading performances. The UK and Asia Pacific have remained more challenging, although the latter has benefited from prior year acquisitions and a gradual recovery in China," Halma said.
It also announced that chair Paul Walker would retire from his role, and step down from the board by July 2021, to take up a new position externally.
Cussons said it had a good start to the current financial year but that it expected tougher trading with the UK and other markets in recession.
The maker of Imperial Leather soap updated on trading for the three months to the end of August as it reported a 33% drop in annual profit. Pre-tax profit from continuing operations fell to £29.3m from £43.6m in the year to the end of May as revenue declined 2.6% to £587.2m
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