London pre-open: Stocks seen muted after uninspiring US and Asian sessions
London stocks were set for a muted open on Tuesday following uninspiring sessions in the US and Asia, as investors look ahead to this week's Bank of England rate announcement.
The FTSE 100 was expected to open four points lower at 7,483.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "The pound had a decent day yesterday after the sharp falls seen at the end of last week, over doubts that the monetary policy might bottle this week’s rate decision. Markets still assign an 86% probability that the Bank will raise rates for the first time in ten years this Thursday, which means the consequences of not doing so are likely to be brutal on the pound.
"Yesterday’s consumer credit numbers showed that borrowing slowed slightly in September but not worryingly so. The latest Gfk consumer confidence did show a slight fall in October to -10 as consumers slowed their spending ahead of the Christmas period, though business confidence does appear to be holding steady for the time being."
A survey released earlier by GfK showed UK consumer confidence about the economy worsened in October, ahead of big decisions from the Bank of England later this week, the Budget next month and ongoing Brexit negotiations.
GfK's consumer confidence index dropped one point to -10 in October as sub-categories for the general economic situation over the last 12 months fell one point and for the coming 12 months decreased by two points.
On the upside, the measure for people's personal financial situation over the last 12 months and the major purchase index increased by one and two points respectively. The score for people's personal financial situation over the next 12 months stayed the same.
In corporate news, BP announced a plan to buy back shares as Britain's second-biggest oil company beat expectations for third-quarter profit.
The company's underlying replacement cost profit doubled to $1.87bn (£1.42bn) in the three months to the end of September from $933m a year earlier. Analysts' consensus forecast was for $1.58bn, Reuters said.
BP announced a quarterly dividend of 10 cents a share. The company said it would start to buy back shares in the fourth quarter to offset the dilutive effect of scrip dividends - which are paid in shares.
Sales remained negative for WPP in the third quarter as the advertising market continued to be hit by client cost saving.
For the full year, like-for-like revenue and net sales growth are both now being guided as likely to be "broadly flat", down from sales guidance of 2% in February and 3% last December.
After a period of consultation, BT said the UK's communications providers have “welcomed” the ambition of its Openreach network division to build a large-scale fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network across the country.
The company said there was also “broad agreement” that FTTP would safeguard the UK's position as a leading digital economy - but to make the investment viable, a number of key enablers would need to be put in place through close cooperation among the communications industry, the regulator Ofcom and Government.
Speciality chemical company Croda International said that the improved sales trend seen in the first half of 2017 continued through the third quarter, with group constant currency sales up 4.4% in the quarter and 4.0% year-to-date.
The company said that, across the three core sectors, constant currency sales grew 5.7% in the quarter, which was driven by a “strengthening performance” in personal care, with constant currency sales up 7.5% building on the recovery seen in the first half of the year.