London pre-open: Stocks seen up as investors eye US inflation

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Wednesday following heavy losses in the previous session, as investors eyed the latest US inflation reading. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 10 points higher.

Danske Bank said: "Today's most important data release will be the US October CPI, where we expect inflation to slow down in both headline (+0.1% m/m SA, from +0.2%) and core (+0.2% m/m SA, from +0.3%) terms.

"In annual terms, headline inflation could still appear to accelerate due to base effects stemming from a low reading a year ago (headline forecast 2.5% y/y, from 2.4%)."

The consume price index for October is due at 1330 GMT.

In corporate news, weapons maker Babcock reported a sharp jump in half-year profits and held annual guidance as geopolitical tensions increased demand from governments for military hardware.

The company posted pre-tax profit of £172m in the six months to September 30, up from £136m a year earlier.

Babcock said around 90% of full-year expected revenue was under contract at the start of October.

"We commence the second half with good momentum and are confident of making further progress against our medium-term guidance: to deliver mid-single digit average annual revenue growth and achieve underlying operating margins of at least 8% and underlying operating cash conversion of at least 80%," the company said.

Smiths Group raised its growth and margin guidance and beefed up its share buyback programme after an "outstanding" first quarter.

As a result of the strong start to the year and a record order book, the engineering company now expects full-year organic revenue growth of 5-7%, up from earlier guidance of 4-6%.

Elsewhere, Just Eat said it had agreed to sell US business Grubhub to Wonder Group for $650m.

Founder and chief executive Jitse Groen said: "The sale of Grubhub to Wonder will increase the cash generation capabilities of Just Eat Takeaway.com and will accelerate our growth.

"This deal delivers the right home for Grubhub and its employees. I would like to thank everyone at Grubhub for their contributions to both Grubhub and the wider Just Eat Takeaway.com business."