London pre-open: Stocks seen lower amid escalating Sino-US tensions
London stocks were set to fall at the open on Monday amid souring relations between the US and China.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 43 points lower at 5,720.
Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated US President Donald Trump’s that the coronavirus originated in a research laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Speaking to ABC programme ‘This Week’, Pompeo said there was "enormous evidence" that the virus came from the lab.
"Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories," he said.
"These are not the first times that we've had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab."
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “Having only recently signed a trade deal with China, just prior to the outbreak of the current pandemic, President Trump caught the markets a little off guard by comments that raised the prospect of raising new tariffs against them on the premise that the virus was their fault, and that they sought to spread it on purpose, or at the very least did little to halt its spread.”
In corporate news, Tate & Lyle said US bulk sweetener volume fell 26% in April as bars, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events were either shut or cancelled as part of the coronavirus lockdown.
Industrial starch volume was 9% lower reflecting reduced demand for paper and packaging following the closure of schools, offices and a general decline in economic activity, the company said. Commodities were also impacted as ethanol prices decreased sharply.
LXI announced that following an unsolicited approach, it has sold two social housing assets for a total price of £2.2m, to a specialist fund.
The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust said that reflected a net exit yield of 5.15%, comparing favourably to the net acquisition yield of 6.0% that it paid in 2017.
It said it intended to redeploy the proceeds into its accretive asset pipeline, once the impact of Covid-19 becomes clearer.