London pre-open: Stocks to rise after Wednesday's losses

London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following losses in the previous session, when worries about rising inflation and a crypto crash sent markets tumbling.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 50 points higher at 7,000.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "There were a number of different elements to yesterday’s slide in equity markets, the highest profile of which appeared to be concerns over a more activist approach from Chinese regulators towards cryptocurrencies as well as commodity prices, which prompted big declines in both.

"This saw Ethereum plunge 40% at one point and bitcoin fall at least 30% before both rebounded, with bitcoin now back close to $40k, after hitting a low of $30k at one point yesterday.

"As a consequence of last night’s late rebound markets here in Europe look set to open higher with investors seemingly caught in a no-man's land of indecision between optimism over the economic reopening, and concern over central banks acting too late to address an inflationary surge."

In corporate news, Kingfisher said first-half sales and profit would beat expectations after the owner of B&Q achieved strong sales growth in the first quarter.

Group sales were £3.45bn in the three months to the end of April - up 64.2% on a like-for-like basis from a year earlier and 22.5% from two years earlier. Kingfisher raised its first-half like-for-like sales outlook to 'mid to high teens' from 'low double digit' and said adjusted pre-tax profit would be £580-600m, ahead of its previous expectations.

The company left its second-half guidance unchanged and said it was aiming to increase annual profit ahead of sales.

Elsewhere, the boom in parcel deliveries during the Covid pandemic as people were stuck at home helped Royal Mail report soaring annual profits.

Britain’s postal service provider said pre-tax profits rose to £726m from £180m as parcels, rather than letters, provided it with the majority of its revenue for the first time in its five-century history. Group revenue was up 16.6% to £12.6bn.