London pre-open: Stocks seen lower on weak US and Asian cues

London stocks are expected to open in the red on Wednesday, taking their cue from heavy losses in the US and Asia.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting 48 points lower than Tuesday’s close at 5,874.

“Yesterday’s sharp fall in equity markets just goes to show how fickle sentiment can be as the gains seen at the back end of last week have once again given way to concerns about a fresh slide in the oil price, as investors continued to scratch away at this festering sore on sentiment,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“This fresh bout of oil price weakness appears to have been driven by the very same concerns that drove the decline in the first part of last week, namely the distant prospect of any sort of OPEC deal to cut back on production, meaning that prices are likely to remain lower for longer, and it is these worries as well as ripple out effects that appear to be causing most market angst.”

On the data front, UK services PMI is at 0930 GMT. In the US, the ADP employment report is at 1315 GMT, while Markit services PMI is at 1445 GMT and ISM non-manufacturing is at 1500 GMT.

AstraZeneca has won European regulatory approval to market its Tagrisso-branded tablets for the treatment of adult patients with certain forms of lung cancer.

Tagrisso, which becomes the first new medicine to be approved under the European Commission's expedited process, has been shown was approved for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the US in November.

Sky looked to increasing its already strong relationship with sports fans on Wednesday, investing £0.3m into UK-based technology firm InCrowd.

The FTSE 100 broadcaster and telecoms provider said the investment followed a series of partnerships with other technology firms in the US.

InCrowd specialises in developing mobile apps, which offer real time content, match analysis and interactive games, aimed at clubs and rights holders as a way to interact with fans.

Hargreaves Lansdown has reported a 10% increase in revenue for the first half of the year.

In its interim report for the six months to 31 December, the financial services provider reported revenue had increased from £144.1m to £158.8m.

That was boosted by a 23% increase in net new business inflows of £2.77bn, up from £2.25bn, as well as a 47,000 increase to its active client numbers of 783,000.

Total assets under administration rose 7% to £58.8bn in the six months.

The FTSE 100 company said profit before tax rose 6% to £108.1m, and declared an interim dividend of 7.8p per share.