London pre-open: Stocks seen up on positive US and Asian cues but trade war woes remain

London stocks were called to rise at the open on Tuesday, taking their cue from positive sessions in the US and Asia, although Brexit concerns and worries about escalating trade tensions between the US and China were expected to keep a cap on gains

The FTSE 100 was set to open up 17 points at 7,681.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The trade tensions between the US and China still dominate the headlines. President Trump is confident he is doing the right course of action as the Chinse stock market has suffered so much in recent months, it is no longer the second-largest in the world. Washington DC and Beijing have been upping the ante recently, and it seems that neither side wants to back down, so the story is likely to hang over the markets.

"Sterling has gone from bad to worse in the past few days. The Bank of England had a dovish hike on Thursday, Mark Carney, the BoE governor, talked down the pound down on Friday as he warned about the possibility of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. Sterling sold-off heavily yesterday after Secretary of international trade Liam Fox announced there is a 60-40 likelihood of the UK leaving the EU without a trade deal. Traders are terrified about the possibility of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. The more we hear the phrase ‘no-deal Brexit’, the more likely the pound will be kept under the cosh. The British side might give off the impression off they would be content without a deal in order to force Brussel’s hand, and the pound could be in for a rocky ride in the near-term."

On the data front, Halifax house prices for July are at 0830 BST.

In corporate news, Hargreaves Lansdown rewarded shareholders with a 38% hike in its dividend as the pensions and investments provider topped 1m active clients in the 12 months to 30 June. Total assets under administration grew 16% over the year to £91.6bn, up from £88.8bn in the final quarter, as a net £7.6bn of new business inflows was augmented by £5.9m of asset market growth.

Interim operating profit at Intercontinental Hotels Group rose to $406m from $370m with RevPAR up 3.7% led by Greater China, where double digit growth in both RevPAR and net system size, as well as record signings, reflected the firm's efforts to focus on that market.

GlaxoSmithKline announced that Iain Mackay has been appointed its next chief financial officer, and as an executive director to the board, with both positions starting on 14 January next year.

The FTSE 100 drug maker said Mackay was joining it from HSBC, where he had been group finance director for the last eight years. GSK had announced in May that it existing CFO, Simon Dingemans, was retiring from the firm in May 2019.