London pre-open: Quiet start expected to week

The FTSE 100 was called to open lower on Monday after a mixed Asian session.

Public holidays across much of Europe will lead to lighter trading on Monday but later in the week things will pick up with the release of the latest April inflation data tomorrow, as well as the latest unemployment, wages and retail sales data, later in the week.

Across the Atlantic, the big release will be Wednesday's Fed minutes from the April meeting.

"It could be a relatively slow start to the week with Monday being a bank holiday in much of Europe and relatively little data being released," said Craig Erlam from Oanda. "We had a mixed session is Asia overnight as investors overlooked the weaker data from China over the weekend to remain range-bound, moving between positive and negative territory throughout the session."

In companies, full year underlying profits rose but earnings per share fell at British Land. Underlying profits were up to £363m from £313m driven by successful leasing activity and lower financing costs, while net asset value jumped to 919p from 829p. Earnings per share fell to 131.2p from 168.3p.

Down on the 250, ICAP's revenues were down in the year to 31 March to £1.2bn as the inter-dealer broker, which also revealed it was changing its name to Nex Group, described markets at "challenging" but said it was "on the cusp of one of the most exciting eras in the company's 30-year history".

Rates of new house completions, sales per week and total forward sales all slowed down at Crest Nicholson in the first half of the year compared to its last financial year as the housebuilder focused on growing selling prices. Unit completions in the six months to 30 April of 1,206 was 7% ahead of prior year, down from 8%, with the sales rate per outlet week 4% faster at 1.06, though this is a slowdown from the 10% last year that excluded the private rented sector.

In the newspapers, the Times noted that the merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral could be blocked, with analysts pointing to the blocking last week of the proposed merger between O2 and Three by Europe’s competition commission on the ground that it would have cut the number of big players from four to three, an argument supported by the UK's regulator.

A number of bidders battling for BHS have been told to improve their offers by Tuesday to stand a chance of buying the collapsed high street chainm, it was reported.

Administrators have spent the past week assessing several bids for the retailer, which are thought to include Sports Direct, and are expected to make a decision on a buyer within days.

Sky faces a possible 70% rise in the bill for German football rights in an auction next month, analysts estimate, in a Telegraph report.