Tui on course, acquisition for Grainger JV

London open

The FTSE 100 is predicted by City traders to extend losses on Tuesday morning with a 20-point fall.

Stocks to watch

Tui rode out the shifting geopolitical sands in the first quarter and reiterated its full year guidance, as demand sunny holidays shifted away from south eastern Europe to safer climes. The Anglo-German travel giant generated turnover of €3.72bn in the three months to 31 December, up 5.4% compared the same period a year before if ignoring the impact of currencies, while underlying EBITDA losses improved 7.2% to €97.3m.

Grainger’s joint venture with APG has acquired Kew Bridge Court for approximately £57.3m. The FTSE 250 company announced on Tuesday that GRIP, a private rented sector fund it has a 25% stake in, acquired the residential estate of 94 flats, 4 houses and 80 car parking spaces, plus has development potential including planning consent for five additional units.

Healthcare real estate investment trust Assura was pressing ahead with its expansion plans on Tuesday, updating the market on its activities since a significant equity raise late last year. The £300m equity raise on 11 October "improves Assura's standing with its primary customers in the NHS and GPs", also allowing the reduction of long-term debt by £181m, the temporary repayment of the revolving credit facility of £35m and 12 property additions with a gross value on completion of £39m.

Newspaper round-up

HSBC is leaning towards keeping its headquarters in London after 10 months of agonising debate reflecting a reversal of the previous stance of chief executive Stuart Gulliver. In private meetings over the past few weeks, Mr Gulliver has played down the case for leaving the UK, according to people present, arguing that the environment in the UK is far more stable than he had feared a year ago. – Financial Times

An increasing squeeze on the UK’s public finances will require George Osborne to break several records if he is to balance Britain’s books by the end of the decade, according to the country’s leading economic think-tank. The Green Budget from the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlights the fragility of Mr Osborne’s goal of running a surplus by 2019–2020, stressing the increasingly difficult targets the chancellor will have to meet. – Financial Times

Britain is extremely unlikely to face an economic recession over the next two years and is on safer ground than any other major country in the developed world, according to a new crisis-study by Goldman Sachs. The US investment bank said the global stock market rout and the credit tremors this year are sending off false signals, insisting that underlying indicators of economic health show little sign of a sudden rupture in Europe, the US or across the OECD bloc of rich states. – Telegraph

Revenues generated from stamp duty in London fell by £105 million in the first nine months of last year, as George Osborne’s reform of the tax led to a slowdown in transactions for the most expensive homes in the capital. Nationwide, the stamp duty tax collected between January and October 2015 was down by 12.1 per cent compared with the same period a year previously, leading to a £620 million fall for England and Wales. – The Times

US close

US stocks declined on Monday, with fears of a global slowdown and fresh drops in oil prices leading a New York-led flight into gold and bonds.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.82% overall, closing at 4,283.75. It was down even further earlier in the session amid fears of a collapse in the 'FANG' stocks - Facebook fell by 4.15%, Amazon by 2.79%, Netflix reversed losses to close up 0.64% and Google parent Alphabet was up by 0.06% by the closing bell.

Losses in the material sector led to the S&P 500 tumbling 1.42% to close at 1,853.44, paring back earlier losses. It hit 1,844 late in the session, though that was still above its intraday low of 1,812.29 reached on January 20.

There were concerns that, if the index reached that low level, it "could indicate if we are really heading into a big bear market or nearing the end of a big correction within a bull market", according to CMC Markets chief market strategist Colin Cieszynski.