(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Thursday following strong gains in the previous session, as investors continue to eye developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and look to the latest policy announcement from the European Central Bank.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 30 points lower at 7,160.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "As we look ahead to today's European open, which looks set to be a slightly softer one, after yesterday's rebound, the focus will still be on events in Ukraine, but markets will also be eyeing today's ECB rate decision, as well as US February CPI.
"If the ECB's position wasn't difficult enough already, recent events in Ukraine will mean that inflation, far from being transitory is not only likely to remain high but is also set to go even higher over the course of the next few months.
"CPI is already well over 10% in the Baltic states, and closer to the front line, but likely to go even higher in the coming months.
"This, with European headline rates already deeply negative, and no real scope to cut them further, make it even more difficult for the ECB, at a time when inflation is likely to surge higher and GDP growth to slow further."
In UK corporate news, engineering group Spirax-Sarco predicted strong growth in 2022 as the it reported a sharp rise in annual profit and increased its dividend.
Adjusted operating profit rose 26% to £340.3m in the year to the end of December as revenue increased 13% to £1.34bn. Pre-tax profit was up 31% to £314.5m. The FTSE 100 engineer increased its final dividend by 15% to 97.5p a share, taking the annual payout to 136p a share - also up 15%.
Spirax-Sarco said it expected strong sales growth in 2022 based on record order books and expansion of global industrial production.
Infrastructure builder Balfour Beatty more than doubled annual earnings, and lifted its share buyback target as cash flow improved.
The company reported underlying profit from operations of £181m compared with £75m in Covid-affected 2020 and 5% ahead of pre-pandemic levels. It said it was now buying back £150m in shares and lifted its dividend to 9p a share from 1.5p a year earlier.
Transport operator National Express said that full-year revenue, underlying earnings and pre-tax profits had all improved year-on-year in 2021 as demand for its services recovered "significantly" during the period.
National Express said group revenue was up 11% to £2.17bn, while group EBITDA surged 60.8% to £300.0m. The group reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £39.7m, a marked improvement when compared to the prior year's underlying pre-tax loss of £106.1m, and underlying basic earnings per share of 0.01p, up from 2020's loss of 14.6p. However, on a statutory basis, group operating losses were narrowed from £381.4m to £36.2m and pre-tax losses were reduced from £444.7m to £84.9m.