London pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of data slew

London stocks were set for a muted open on Tuesday ahead of a slew of key data releases, as investors eyed this week’s general election.

The FTSE 100 was called to open just two points higher at 7,235.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The week has a packed schedule as there are central bank meetings, a general election, in addition to a tariff deadline, but yesterday was far from exciting. European equity markets posted small losses, and the mood on Wall Street was lacklustre too."

On the data front, industrial and manufacturing production figures are due at 0930 GMT, along with the trade balance and gross domestic product for October.

"The estimate of GDP for the three months until October is expected to show 0.0% growth," said Madden. "On a monthly basis, industrial output, manufacturing output, and construction output are expected to be 0.2%, 0.0%, and -0.2% respectively. The goods trade balance deficit is tipped to decline to £11.65 billion."

The rest of the week will see interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, the general election in the UK and the US tariff deadline on China.

"The US are due to slap tariffs on more than $150 billion worth of Chinese imports on 15 December, and the, will they, won’t they, question is circulating around the markets," Madden said. "The US-China trade situation is likely to be the biggest event of the week. In recent weeks, the language has been largely hopeful but nothing is a done deal."

In corporate news, Segro said it had sold a portfolio of UK big box warehouses for £241m to a fund advised by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing in joint venture with Thor Equities Group.

The transaction was expected to complete by the end of the year, Segro said on Tuesday. The portfolio comprises seven stand-alone big box warehouses with a total floor space of 203,400 sq metres.

Online food takeaway service Just Eat rejected a revised 740p-a-rival share offer from Prosus, saying it “significantly” undervalued the company.

Prosus is competing for control of Just Eat with Dutch rival Takeaway.com, which agreed a £4.8bn merger that would create one of the world’s biggest online food delivery companies. The Amsterdam-listed offshoot of South African technology group Naspers made a 710p a share cash offer in October and last week raised the stakes.

"Just Eat … continues to believe that the Prosus offer fails to reflect appropriately the quality of Just Eat and its attractive assets and prospects, the benefits of first mover advantage in a consolidating sector, and, on the basis of its own analysis, the future upside available to Just Eat shareholders through remaining invested in Just Eat and the Takeaway.com combination," the company said in a statement.

Ashtead reported a 14% improvement in revenue in its first half , to £2.68bn, as its rental revenue rose 13% to £2.45bn.

The FTSE 100 equipment rental giant said its operating profit for the six months ended 31 October was £771m, up from £679m, as its earnings per share improved 11% to 111.8p.

It declared an interim dividend of 7.15p per share, up 10% year-on-year.

Computacenter said its full year adjusted profit before tax is now anticipated to be ahead of consensus expectations of £136.2m, while earnings per share are also on course to beat forecasts following material progress in the last 11 months.

The IT specialist added that its strong performance had been driven by both its established businesses and the fact that its US-based FusionStorm acquisition has started to perform in line with expectations following a difficult start to the year.