London pre-open: Stocks seen up despite expected delay to lockdown lifting

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Monday despite expectations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a four-week delay to the lifting of England's lockdown.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 23 points higher at 7,157.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "As we look ahead to this week's key events the Federal Reserve has the perfect opportunity to reset market expectations with respect to tapering its bond purchases. No one is seriously suggesting a rise in rates yet, but there is scope to reduce the monthly bond purchase amount from the current $120bn a month without jeopardising the recovery. This is something the Fed could well do especially since the recent fall in yields has helped buy them some room.

"In the UK it's also set to be another big week for UK economic data, with the latest unemployment, inflation and retail sales numbers for April and May set to show a continued improvement in the direction of travel for the UK economic rebound.

"Today we are also set to find out that next week's scheduled relaxation of restrictions on the UK economy is expected to be put back by up to four weeks, over concerns about the rising levels of infection in the Delta or Indian variant. As a consequence, we might see a little bit of softness in the pound, along with possible further weakness in the likes of hospitality and travel stocks, which had already started to slide at the end of last week over those very concerns."

In corporate news, environmental infrastructure fund JLEN said it had bought Cramlington Renewable Energy Developments, which owns a biomass combined heat and power plant, and its underlying contracts for an undisclosed sum.

The deal was made on a debt-free basis and represents JLEN's first investment into a large-scale biomass CHP Plant, the company said.

Serco lifted its guidance for 2021 as it announced that its joint venture with Engie has been awarded UK defence infrastructure contracts with total potential value of £3.4bn over an initial term of seven years.