London pre-open: Stocks to recover after Monday's losses
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 01 Apr 2025
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday following heavy losses in the previous session.
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 40 points higher, having closed down 0.9% on Monday as Trump's tariff threats rattled markets yet again.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "March is over, the pain is probably not. Global equity markets kicked off the week on a negative note ahead of the so-called Liberation Day, April 2nd, the day the Trump administration will reveal the reciprocal tariffs to the rest of the world.
"Based on the strategy adopted by the White House since the beginning of Trump's second term, tomorrow's announcement will likely by exaggerated, overdone, buzzy and nerve-wrecking to make the others fear, react and negotiate."
On home shores, data from Nationwide showed that house prices were steady in March and likely to remain "a little soft" in the coming months due to stamp duty changes.
House prices were up 3.9% on the year in March, unchanged on February. On the month, prices were flat, having risen 0.4% in February.
The average price of a home stood at £271,316 last month, versus £270,493 in February.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "These price trends are unsurprising, given the end of the stamp duty holiday at the end of March (transactions associated with mortgage approvals made in March, especially toward the end of the month, would be unlikely to complete before the deadline).
"Indeed, the market is likely to remain a little soft in the coming months since activity will have been brought forward to avoid the additional tax obligations - a pattern typically observed in the wake of the end of stamp duty holidays.
"Nevertheless, activity is likely to pick up steadily as the summer progresses, despite wider economic uncertainties in the global economy, since underlying conditions for potential home buyers in the UK remain supportive."
In corporate news, Spire Healthcare said it had bought Acorn Occupational Health for £3.3m.
Acorn provides services to a wide range of corporate clients in multiple industry sectors, as well as public-sector clients, including the NHS, Spire said in a statement.
Capita said it has secured a £107m contract extension with the Education Authority of Northern Ireland to continue providing managed IT and application services to 1,104 schools until March 2027, with an option to extend for up to two additional years.
The outsourcing specialist said the agreement covered a wide range of services, including IT consultancy, hardware, software, and related support.
It said the extension built on a 13-year partnership, and supported its strategy of delivering large-scale technology solutions to public sector clients.
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