London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on lockdown news
London stocks were set to fall at the open on Tuesday after England was placed under national lockdown for at least six weeks.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 14 points lower at 6,557, having rallied on Monday on the back of vaccine optimism and deal news.
Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, said: "The UK’s lawmakers have decided to push the country back into a national lockdown last night, and this is the third time British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced this.
"There is no doubt that the government has failed terribly in controlling the coronavirus situation in the UK and this particular lockdown is highly likely to break the backbone for many businesses. Basically, we have two plagues, firstly it is the virus itself, and then we have the UK government, which is completely incompetent in controlling the virus.
"The fact that nonessential businesses will be closed until at least mid-February, we are highly likely to see very few businesses survive through this particular lockdown."
In corporate news, supermarket chain Morrisons reported a 9.3% rise in like-for-like sales over the key Christmas and New Year three-week period to January 3.
For the 22 weeks to January 3, group LFL sales excluding fuel were up 8.1%, comprising contributions from retail of 7.2% and wholesale of 0.9%. Group LFL including fuel was up 1.9%, with fuel LFL down 23.1% again temporarily impacted by new Covid lockdowns and tier restrictions
DCC announced that it has expanded its presence in the United States LPG market with the acquisition of United Propane Gas (UPG).
The company said that, together with a recent smaller bolt-on acquisition completed in Colorado, the combined enterprise value of the transactions was $145m, paid in cash on completion from its resources. It said UPG markets, sells and delivers LPG and related products and services to residential, agricultural and commercial customers in 13 midwest and southern states, with a “particularly strong” presence in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.