London pre-open: Stocks seen higher but commodities remain in focus

London stocks are called to open higher on Wednesday, bouncing back from mining-led losses in the previous session.

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 17 points higher than Tuesday’s close at 6,152.

The biggest concern over the last few days is about the fresh commodity rout and if this could turn out to be a much bigger event,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

“Miners are under heavy pressure and they were punished badly yesterday. Industry leaders within this sector are adopting a very dangerous survival strategy which is cutting jobs, dropping projects and investors’ dividends are vanishing. These measures are extreme and they are taking these to address the piling debt, which they have on their balance sheet, but still it is nowhere close to ease their pain. If the demand does not start to pick up in China which does not seem like it - at least in the near future- the miners sell off could brew a much bigger storm for the industry and for the sector.”

There are no major UK data due but in the US, wholesale inventories are at 1500 GMT.

RSA sells Russian operations for £5m

RSA Insurance Group said it was selling its Russian operations to the non-state pension company Blagosostoyanie for £5m in cash.

Group chief operating officer Paul Whittaker said the Russian unit did not have the same scale as RSA's core franchises in the UK, Canada and Scandinavia.

“Therefore we have decided to sell Intouch to a company that is an experienced and committed player in the Russian market.”

RSA Russia accounted for net written premiums of £27m and an underwriting loss of £5m within RSA’s 2014 group results (before deduction of non-controlling interest)

It is anticipated that completion will take place in early 2016.

Equipment rental company Ashtead Group reported a positive start to the year, with first half revenue growth of 18% driven by a strong second quarter.

Underlying revenue for the quarter grew 17% at constant exchange rates from £477.9m to £589.0m, boosting first half revenues to £1.13bn.

That led to a first half pre-tax profit of £342.7m, up 21%.

Workspace Group announced the disposal of a light industrial portfolio on Wednesday, totalling three light industrial buildings in Park Royal, London.

The exchange of contracts was confirmed in a statement to the market, with the FTSE 250-listed property investor saying the deal was worth £7m.