London pre-open: Stocks seen down as investors eye events in France, South Korea

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following mixed performances in the US and Asia, as investors mulled events in France and South Korea.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 30 points.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "South Korea briefly stole the light from the French political chaos after President Yoon suddenly imposed the martial law yesterday accusing the opposition party - which holds the majority in the parliament - of paralysing his administration, only to lift it a few hours later.

"The Korean won and the stocks fell, and the volatility in broader Asian markets and cryptocurrencies was higher, but the impact remained limited," she said, adding that "France could safely come back to the front of the scene with lawmakers preparing to hold a no-confidence vote today and to take Barnier’s government down".

On the macro front, the S&P Global UK services PMI for November is due out at 0930 GMT. Investors will also be eyeing the US ADP report at 1315 GMT and the ISM services PMI at 1500 GMT.

In corporate news, Rio Tinto forecast higher consolidated mined copper production for the 2025 financial year driven by higher output from its Oyu Tolgoi operation in Mongolia.

The miner said it expected copper production of 780,000 - 850,000 tonnes, compared with 660,000-720,000 tons expected in fiscal 2024.

In a separate announcement, Rio said it was selling a 30% stake in its Winu copper-gold project in Australia to Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. for $399m.

Financial services and investment group Legal & General maintained profit guidance for the full year and hinted at more returns for shareholders than previously announced.

The company said it expects to return to shareholders a proportion of the capital not deployed on strain this year which "would be incremental to the capital return intentions indicated at the Capital Markets Event in June".