Sainsbury's makes strong start to financial year, Spirax-Sarco completes $415m Chromalox deal

Market live

The FTSE 100 is expected to open down 29 points on Tuesday, after closing up 0.88% at 7,377.09 on Monday.

Stocks to watch

Sainsbury's enjoyed a strong start to its financial year as grocery sales growth accelerated and general merchandise, including Argos, outperformed the market. Like-for-like retail sales excluding fuel grew 2.3% in the 16 weeks to 1 July, with grocery up 3%, general merchandise up 1% and clothing up 7.2%.

Steam, peristaltic pumping and fluid path technology company Spirax-Sarco Engineering confirmed it had completed the acquisition of Chromalox on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 company had initially announced the $415m deal on 26 May. Spirax-Sarco said it would now invest in Chromalox to strengthen its direct sales channels, as well as leverage its footprint to grow Chromalox's presence outside of its core markets in the US.

Newspaper round-up

Fears about a crisis in subprime lending grew yesterday after leading City analysts warned that borrowers have limited flexibility to handle the rising cost of living. Household budgets are under sustained pressure from falling real wages, Liberum told clients. The warning comes amid growing concerns over reckless lending, particularly in the car market. - The Times

Any attempt to unwind the regulatory reforms to banking made since the financial crisis would damage global growth, Mark Carney has warned. Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the international Financial Stability Board, the governor of the Bank of England launched a thinly veiled attack on the White House for threatening to oppose certain reforms. - The Times

British manufacturers are fast approaching a “tipping point” where a lack of certainty over the direction of Brexit negotiations will force them to make painful cuts whatever the outcome, they say. The stark warning, due to be delivered on Tuesday by Engineering Employers’ Federation chief executive Terry Scuoler, comes as business leaders begin a week of crunch meetings with government ministers to try to force the pace of thinking over how to ensure economic stability when Britain leaves the European Union. - Guardian

The most dovish member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee is sticking to his view that now is not the time to raise rates, despite a growing sense in financial markets that the central bank is gearing up to increase the cost of borrowing. In an interview with The Independent, Gertjan Vlieghe, an external member of the MPC, said: "This is an environment where a premature hike would be a bigger mistake than one that turns out to be slightly late".

US close

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61% to 21,429.27, while the S&P 500 added 0.23% to 2,429.01 and the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.88% to 5,596.96 in a truncated session on Monday.

Wall Street will remain closed for the Independence Day holiday on Tuesday.