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London open: Stocks open lower as investors sift through earnings
London stocks opened in the red tracking US markets which closed lower for the first time in three days.
With a lack of economic data to drive equities, traders are focusing on earnings from a slate of FTSE 350 companies.
Pearson was a top faller after reporting a 4% drop in third quarter underlying sales and reducing its earnings guidance range for the full year by 5p to 70p-75p.
Home Retail slumped as it posted a 47% plunge in pre-tax profits at its Argos stores and warned that group full-year profits will fall short of expectations due to trading uncertainty caused by Black Friday.
ARM Holdings surged after posting a jump in third-quarter pre-tax profit as revenue grew on the back of premium chip pricing and the broadening adoption of its technology.
Reckitt Benckiser Group rallied after lifting its full-year like-for-like sales growth estimate to 5% from a previous range of between 4% and 5% as it posted better-than-expected third-quarter revenue.
Sky was higher as it reported a strong first quarter with new paid-for subscription products boosting the company’s revenue.
The only main economic data release worth noting for the UK is public finance figures for September. Analysts predict a fall to £10.1bn from £12.1bn in August.
Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney is due to speak later this evening on the analysis of banks but has told MPs it will be a “bit of a yawner”.
“The findings are likely to be quite political, particularly if they come down one way or the other,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
