London pre-open: Stocks seen up just a touch despite record highs on Wall St
London stocks were set to nudge just a touch higher at the open on Tuesday despite record highs on Wall Street on the back of optimism over the tax reform bill, as the Christmas lull sets in.
The FTSE 100 was expected to open up four points at 7,541.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "US equity markets continued where they left off last week once again posting new record highs with the Nasdaq pushing above 7,000 for the first time ever, as more and more Republican senators come out and publicly back the US Presidents tax reform plans, with many expecting a vote on the plans to take place and be passed later today. Asia markets, with the exception of the Nikkei225 followed on that US enthusiasm, helped on their way by firmer commodity prices, which have boosted the mining sector.
"This week’s optimism has been fuelled by the fact that two previous critics of the reforms in Marco Rubio and Bob Corker have openly said they will back the plans, after initially saying they were unhappy with some elements of the proposed legislation."
There are no major UK data releases due.
In corporate news, Petrofac has completed the migration of the Santuario production enhancement contract into an interest in a production sharing contract, it announced on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 company said that, effective from 18 December, Petrofac would own a 36% equity interest in the production sharing contract, with PEMEX Exploration & Production Mexico having a 64% interest.
Indivior has entered into an amendment with various lenders to provide replacement term loan facilities in an aggregate principal amount of approximately $484m, it announced on Tuesday, replacing all of its dollar and euro-denominated term loans outstanding under the existing credit agreement.
The company said the new term loan facilities reduced the group's interest coupon to LIBOR plus 4.50%, from LIBOR plus 6.00%.