London pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher as oil recovers

(ShareCast News) - London stocks were expected to open a little higher on Tuesday as oil prices recovered.The FTSE 100 was seen starting 12 points higher than Monday's close at 6,272."European equity markets are currently on course to open a little higher but these gains are marginal and at this stage only represent a slight paring of Monday's losses," said Oanda's Craig Erlam."Oil is currently trading around half a percentage point higher on the day but remains down on the week after Genscape reported on Monday that inventories in Cushing rose again last week. This could be confirmed by API when it releases its figures this evening and EIA on Wednesday, which could weigh further on oil prices."On the data front, BBA loans for house purchase are at 0930 BST. In the US, durable goods orders are at 1330 BST, S&P/Case-Shiller house prices are at 1400 BST, the Markit Services PMI is at 1445 BST and consumer confidence is at 1500 BST.The weak oil price pushed exploration and refining giant BP to a $485m first quarter replacement cost loss, compared with a profit $2.1bn profit in the same period last year.Pre-tax losses were $865m compared with a $2.2bn profit in the first quarter of 2015."Despite the challenging environment, we are driving towards our near-term goal of rebalancing BP's cash flows. Operational performance is strong and our work to reset costs has considerable momentum and is delivering results. Furthermore, development of our next wave of material upstream projects is well on track," said chief executive Bob Dudley.Wealth manager St James's Place said first quarter gross inflow of funds under management increased to £2.45bn from £2.11bn.Net inflows grew to £1.36bn from £1.32bn bringing group funds under management to £62bn compared with £55.8bn a year ago."Against a backdrop of continued uncertainty across global stock markets, our business is performing strongly," said chief executive David Bellamy."The fact that the Chancellor avoided further changes to Pension tax relief and chose to give further encouragement to individual savings through a higher limit for ISAs in 2017, the introduction of a lifetime ISA and reduced Capital Gains tax, bodes well for the future."Hospitality group Whitbread reported sizeable increases in revenue and earnings in its preliminary results on Tuesday, with total revenue up 12% to £2.91bn, and underlying profit before tax up 11.9% to £546.3m.Hotel and restaurant underlying profit improved 11.3% to £446.9m, while underlying profit from coffee chain Costa grew faster, by 15.8% to £153.5m in the 53-week year to 3 March.Total profit for the year was up 5.8% to £387.3m."With another good set of results, that continue to show the strength of Whitbread's brands, the board is pleased to announce an increase in the full year dividend of 10%," said chairman Richard Baker, commenting on the performance.Group net revenue jumped 10.6% in the three months ended 31 March, with UK Retail net revenue up 4.1% and digital revenue up 36.5%.