London pre-open: Stocks to recover after Monday's selloff

London stocks were to rise at the open on Tuesday, recovering some ground after heavy losses in the previous session.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 72 points higher at 7,270, having fallen 1% on Monday amid worries about the spread of Omicron and the potential for further restrictions.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Today’s European market open isn’t expected to see any follow-through to yesterday’s decline and in a sign of how fickle sentiment is, we’re expecting to see a positive open, as the continued ebb and flow of flaky sentiment continues for another day.

"While concerns around Omicron remains very real the prospect of new restrictions being implemented this side of Christmas has receded somewhat, after the UK cabinet decided to wait for more data on hospitalisations and deaths.

"This delay has inevitably led to criticism from some quarters, however it’s hard to see what a new lockdown would achieve at this point given that most people have become a lot more cautious lest they contract the virus in any case."

In corporate news, international specialist insurer Hiscox said it had appointed Paul Cooper as group chief financial officer.

Cooper is currently interim group CFO at M&G, the FTSE 100 asset manager and life insurer and has more than 25 years financial services experience including across both the retail and Lloyd's insurance markets, Hiscox said.

Asset manager Schroders has agreed to acquire a 75% stake in specialist investment manager Greencoat Capital Holdings for an initial cash consideration of £358.0m.

Schroders said the deal included a series of options for it to acquire the remaining 25% of Greencoat over time, at a price based on a fair market valuation at the time of the option exercise. The acquisition also includes a potential earn out payment, payable three years after completion and capped at £120.0m.