London pre-open: Stocks seen lower as attention turns to construction data

London stocks are expected to open weaker on Tuesday, as investors look to the release of UK construction data.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting 36 points lower than Monday’s close at 6,024.

“The latest manufacturing PMI numbers out of the UK showed a modest pickup in economic activity in January, while December was also revised higher, which helped give the pound a modest boost. Today’s construction numbers for January are expected to remain steady at 57.6, down slightly from 57.8 in December,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Construction PMI is due at 0930 GMT.

BP reports fourth quarter loss but maintains dividend

BP held its quarterly dividend at 10 cents a share as $2.6bn of write-downs and restructuring charges sent it crashing into losses for the fourth quarter and full year.

For the fourth quarter a $3.31bn loss was reported, with underlying profits crashing 91% to $196m, well shy of forecasts, sending the oil major to a $6.48bn full year loss, with underlying profit plunging by just over half to $5.9bn.

Sainsbury’s and Home Retail have come to an agreement over the terms of a deal that values the FTSE 250 retailer at about £1.3bn.

Home Retail shareholders will receive 55p in cash and 0.321 Sainsbury’s shares for each of their Home shares.

Home shareholders will also receive 2.8p in lieu of a final dividend in respect of the financial year ending 27 February.

Sainsbury’s said the combination of the two groups was “an attractive proposition for the customers and shareholders of both companies, establishing a platform for long-term value creation”.

“The combination is an opportunity to bring together two of the UK's leading retail businesses, with complementary product offers, focused on delivering quality products and services at fair prices, through an integrated, multi-channel proposition.”

Ocado has posted double-digit revenue growth for the year, despite “challenging market conditions”.

The online grocery website posted its results for the 52 weeks to 29 November on Tuesday.

It said revenue had jumped 16.7% from £948.9m to £1.108bn compared to 2014.

Statutory profit before tax also rose over 65% to £11.9m for the full year.

TalkTalk revealed the extent of its cyber-attack injuries on Tuesday, showing a serious drop in customer numbers in its third quarter trading update.

The FTSE 250 telecoms provider did report revenue growth of 1.8%, though it lost 101,000 customers in the three months to 31 December 2015.

TalkTalk suffered a serious cyber attack early in the period, which saw the companysuspend sales to new customers for a short time and see significant damage to its brand value.

The company's board said the cyber attack had a trading impact of £15m, and created exceptional costs of £40m-£45m