London pre-open: Stocks seen up amid lockdown easing

London stocks were set to rise at the open on Monday as coronavirus deaths in Europe continued to fall and as investors welcomed lockdown easing.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 55 points higher at 5,990.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "Yesterday, Prime Minister Johnson mapped out plans to loosen the UK’s lockdown restrictions. Workers in construction and manufacturing could potentially recommence work in the near term, so that is likely to boost investment confidence in London-listed stocks.

"Equity markets in Asia gained ground overnight on the back of optimism in relation to countries loosening their lockdown restrictions, and in turn European indices are tipped to open higher. South Korea and Germany reported an increase in new infections in the wake of their restrictions being eased. This is something that traders should be mindful of as it might curtail the reopening of other economies for fear of a second wave of cases."

In corporate news, TI Fluid Systems said it would pay its final dividend even after Covid-19 customer shutdowns caused revenue to fall 16% in the company's first quarter.

Revenue for the three months to the end of March fell 15.6% to €717.3m (£626m) from a year earlier. Excluding currency movements, revenue fell 16%.

TI Fluid said shareholders would receive 5.2p a share as a final dividend for the year to the end of December on 29 May subject to approval at its annual general meeting.

Diploma pulled its interim dividend and said April revenue had slumped by more than a quarter amid the coronavirus crisis.

The company said underlying revenues fell 28% last month as it reported a 4% rise in interim pre-tax profits to £41.6m.