London pre-open: Stocks seen down after Wall Street reversal

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Tuesday following a late reversal on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 20 points lower at 7,235.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "As a consequence of last night’s late turnaround in US stocks and weaker finish, today’s European market looks set to be a slightly weaker one.

"Civil unrest, renewed covid restrictions and rubber bullets aren’t the look European leaders had envisaged when they slowly started to ease restrictions only a few months ago. The real fear now is that the tighter restrictions being implemented now will eventually morph into harsher measures the closer to Christmas we get, with all the attendant risks such measures could bring to populations jaded by multiple lockdowns."

On the macroeconomic front, Markit’s services and manufacturing PMIs for November are due at 0930 GMT.

In corporate news, online electrical retailer AO World warned that supply chain issues and higher costs would hit full-year earnings and revenue.

The company said the crucial Christmas trading period "is significantly softer than we anticipated only eight weeks ago".

"As a result, we now expect full year group revenue to be flat-to-minus 5% year on year, with group Adjusted EBITDA in the range of £10m - £20m," the company said.

It reported a £5m core adjusted profit for the six months to September 30, down 84% from last year, but up 24% from the pre-pandemic period two years ago.

CRH reported "strong growth" in profitability and further margin expansion in a trading update, with sales up 11% for the nine months ended 30 September to $22.8bn.

The FTSE 100 building materials company said EBITDA was 15% higher year-on-year at $3.9bn, as its EBITDA margin expanded by 50 basis points to 17.1%. It said it was expecting full-year EBITDA to be higher than $5.25bn, “well ahead” of last year.