London pre-open: Greek debt plan to lift stocks early on

Optimism surrounding Greece’s proposed debt plan is expected to lead to a higher open on UK stock markets on Tuesday.

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 23 points higher than Monday’s close of 6,782.55.

The new government in Greece has proposed using debt swaps for new growth-linked bonds, rather than calling for a write-off of its €315n of foreign debt. Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis labelled it “smart debt engineering”.

Analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets UK said: “While the initial proposals could well run into obstacles with respect to EU rules about monetary financing, the fact that a new approach is being tried has to be welcome given how much of a disaster the current bailout program has been.”

Stocks to watch

BP has slashed its investment budget for 2015 by $4bn-6bn after swinging to a non-adjusted loss in the fourth quarter after taking $3.6bn of impairment charges due to the lower oil price. The oil major reported a replacement cost loss of just under $1bn for the three months to 31 December 2014, compared with a profit of $1.5bn previously.

Aberdeen Asset Management saw net outflows in the three months to end-December due to a weakening of investor sentiment to emerging markets in December, with the fragile sentiment and volatile demand expected to continue. The first three months of its new financial year recorded a decline in assets under management to £323.3bn from £324.4bn at the September year end.

Business outsourcing firm Capita has acquired European customer services firm Avocis for £157m. The acquisition is still subject to approval from German competition authority Bundeskartellamt and has been made on a cash and debt-free basis.