London pre-open: Stocks seen up amid flurry of corporate news

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following losses in the previous session, as investors waded through a deluge of earnings from the likes of Barclays and Unilever. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 30 points higher.

Sentiment was likely to be boosted by well-received earnings from Tesla overnight.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said that Tesla, which has been struggling lately, released better-than-expected results.

"The company reported 8% revenue growth and a 17% jump in net income, said that their costs per vehicle were pulled down to the lowest levels (around $35,100), the operating margin got a boost from 7.6% to 10.8% since last year and Cybertruck reached profitability for the first time," she said. "Tesla shares jumped 12% in the afterhours trading."

In UK corporate news, Barclays nudged up its net interest income guidance for the full year and said it is on track to deliver against its short and medium-term targets.

The bank said it expects 2024 net interest income excluding investment bank and head office activities from around £11bn to be "greater than £11bn".

Consumer goods giant Unilever reported third-quarter underlying sales growth of 4.5%, with volume growth up 3.6%.

The company reiterated its outlook for the full year. It continues to expect underlying sales growth to be within its multi-year range of 3% to 5%, with the majority of the growth being driven by volume.

Travis Perkins reported a 5.7% decline in third-quarter group revenue, mainly driven by a weak performance in its merchanting segment, which saw an 8.2% like-for-like revenue drop.

The FTSE 250 company said Toolstation performed strongly, with UK and Benelux sales rising by 2.9% and 9.6% respectively, while loss-making operations in France were on track for full closure by the end of the year.

It said it expected full-year adjusted operating profit to be around £135m, with management cautiously optimistic about market recovery in 2025.