(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN

The FTSE 100 was expected to open 35.7 points lower ahead of the bell on Wednesday, after wrapping up the previous session 0.13% firmer at 10,665.88.


STOCKS TO WATCH

Hammerson has sold £69m of non‑core assets, including several central Dublin holdings and another non‑core investment, taking its total disposals for 2026 to £75m after a final Leeds sale in January. The Dublin sites were bought by Transport Infrastructure Ireland to support the city's planned Metrolink rail system. It has kept other holdings in the Irish capital which it says offer strategic options for development, partnerships and future value creation, alongside its recent move to take full ownership of the Ilac shopping centre.

House builder Vistry said on Wednesday that it expects to report a first‑half pre‑tax loss of around £30m, after cash‑generation measures and weaker partner‑funded volumes significantly weighed on profitability. Excluding those actions, Vistry said underlying pre‑tax profits would have been about £20m. It also stated that it expects FY26 adjusted pre‑tax profits to be in line with current consensus estimates, at around £200m, excluding any impact from its ongoing CEO review.

Senior said in a very brief statement that its full-year trading performance was set to be ahead of the expectations set out in April. The manufacturer of high technology components and systems was due to release its results for the six months ended 30 June on 3 August.

NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP

Britain's deep regional income divide has barely changed in 30 years despite the promises of successive governments to narrow the gap, according to a report showing the challenge for Andy Burnham. As the prime minister-in-waiting prepares for government, the Resolution Foundation said almost no progress had been made since 1997 to tackle stark divisions in household income, before housing costs are taken into account, between the richest and poorest parts of the country. - Guardian

John Lewis has put 200 jobs at risk as it plans to shut down desks operating gift wrapping and foreign exchange services. The 36-strong department store chain said it had begun a consultation on redundancies as it plans to close the desks that operate bureau de change services in 30 stores, and specialist gift wrapping in 25 stores. No final decision has been taken on the closures, but if confirmed they will take place this autumn. - Guardian

One million more homeowners will face higher mortgage bills because of Donald Trump's Iran war, the Bank of England has warned. Rising borrowing costs driven by the conflict mean five million households will see their repayments increase over the next two years when they remortgage. In December, the Bank said four million would see their bills rise. - Telegraph

London is one of the most "highly exposed" parts of the world to having jobs affected by artificial intelligence, according to research by a major forecaster. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development think tank found that the UK capital had the highest share of employment "exposed" to generative AI models such as Chat GPT, Gemini and Claude of any region in 34 countries it considered. - The Times

Businesses meant to benefit from government legislation to digitise trade documents have been "untouched" by the changes, research for the government suggests. While large companies and shipping carriers have taken advantage of the Electronic Trade Documents Act of 2023 to save money by shifting some transactions from paper to digital formats, smaller exporters have been left behind. - The Times

US CLOSE

Major indices closed lower on Tuesday as investors weighed rising tensions in the Middle East and a fresh jump in oil prices, as well as key trade‑deficit figures.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.25% at 52,925.15, while the S&P 500 shed 0.45% to 7,503.85 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.16% softer at 25,818.69.





Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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