London pre-open: Stocks seen slightly lower ahead of inflation figures

London stocks were set for a slightly weaker open on Tuesday as investors eyed some key inflation figures.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open nine points lower at 7,340.

The retail price index, consumer price index and producer price index are all at 0930 BST.

UniCredit said it sees headline CPI inflation easing to 2.1% year-on-year in March from 2.3% YOY in the previous month, and core inflation down by 0.3 percentage points to 1.7% YOY.

"The later timing of Easter this year and a negative contribution from motor fuel prices is likely to more than offset substantial price rises by some of the Big 6 UK energy suppliers," it said.

Investors will also be digesting the latest data from the British Retail Consortium, which showed like-for-like retail sales in the UK fell 1% on the year in March. This follows a 0.6% drop in January and a 0.4% decline in February.

Overall, the first quarter of the year experienced a LFL sales drop of 0.7%, which was the worst three-month figure since March 2011.

In corporate news, JD Sports Fashion reported annual profits before tax and exceptional items up 56% to £244.8m on revenue up 31% to £2.4bn.

The FTSE 250 group, which had £213m net cash at year end, lifted the final dividend 4.8% to 1.30p to bring the total dividend to 1.55p, an increase of 4.7%.

After a ramp up in production in the first quarter, Vedanta Resources achieved record levels of aluminium, zinc, silver and copper production at its India mines.

The miner’s subsidiaries also announced record interim dividends in March with Hindustan Zinc declaring a dividend of about $2.1bn, including dividend distribution tax, and Vedanta Limited declaring a dividend of around $1bn, of which about $500m will be received by Vedanta Plc to be used towards early redemption of 2018 bonds.