London pre-open: Stocks seen lower after US selloff
London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following a tech-led selloff on Wall Street.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 20 points lower at 5,910.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The continued fear surrounding the US tech sector was the main story yesterday, and it is likely to be the focus of today’s trading session too. Relations between the US and China are deteriorating. President Trump talked about ‘decoupling’ the US economy from China as he wants his country to be less dependent on the nation. China is the workshop of the world as its cost of manufacturing is very low, so it won’t be easy to undone all the integration."
News that AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine trial has been put on hold due to a participant having an adverse reaction in the UK was also likely to dent the mood.
In corporate news, waste management firm Biffa said revenues had recovered to 90% of full year levels with underlying profits improving monthly as it maintained annual guidance.
The companysaid industrial and commercial (I&C) revenues were at 87% and industrial 86% last month, adding that it expected to stop furloughing staff at the end of September.
Ongoing pressure on plastic prices will impact trading at Biffa’s Seaham plant until it starts to produce food grade recycled materials in April 2021, the firm said in a trading update.
"The collections division has now completed its first I&C business acquisition of the year, of a trade waste business which had pre-Covid-19 run rate revenues of around £4m. Active negotiations continue on several other deals and the pipeline is expanding as expected," Biffa said.
"Whilst the outlook for the rest of the year is dependent on the pace and shape of the economic recovery, based on the recovery to date, the Board's expectations for the full year remain unchanged."
Computacenter said it expected annual adjusted pretax profit to be at least £180m as it reported a 39.4% increase in first-half profit to £74.6m.
The company has agreed to buy Canada's Pivot Technology for C$105.8m (£62m) to expand in the US and Canada.