London pre-open: Stocks to edge up as US-China trade war rolls on
London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Tuesday as investors continue to keep an eye on Sino-US trade developments.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 11 points higher at 7,318.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "In the middle of next month, the Trump Administration will introduce fresh tariffs on roughly $156 billion worth of Chinese imports, unless something changes. Some traders are hoping phase one of the overall trade deal will be agreed upon by then so there will be no need to press ahead with new tariffs.
"Mr Trump would like more concessions from China in relation to intellectual property rights, but for now he doesn’t want to reverse tariffs, but China are open to the idea of rolling back on the levies.
“The toing and froing of the trade spat will probably continue up until when the next round of US levies are set to kick in, and then we could see some constructive talks.
"Trade concerns played out in Asia overnight as the major indices were mixed and the trading ranges was relatively small."
In corporate news, Hammerson said it had sold the St Oswald's Retail Park in Gloucester, to a local authority for £54m.
The sale price reflects a net initial yield of 8.5%, and is 8% below the 30 June 2019 book value, the company said on Tuesday.
Hammerson has now raised £577m from disposals in 2019, exceeding its minimum target of £500m for the financial year.
Defence contractor Meggitt said it had won a six year $130m requirements contract with the US Defense Logistics Agency to supply aircraft fuel bladders.
The company on Tuesday said the deal would supply the bladders to the F/A-18 Super Hornet, V-22 Osprey and the CH/MH-53 Super Stallion aircraft, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2020.
Polypipe Group updated the market on its trading for the 10 months ended 31 October on Tuesday, reporting a “resilient performance” in tough markets, with revenue 4.3% higher at £381.7m, and operating margins 30 basis points higher thanks to margin accretive acquisitions and strong cost controls.
The FTSE 250 company said that since the end of October, however, its strong 2018 comparatives had been compounded by flooding and poor ground conditions, most notably in the North and the Midlands, meaning contractors and developers had not been able to access sites for civils and groundworks activities.
As a result, it now expected underlying operating profit for the year to be just below its previous expectations.