London pre-open: Stocks to fall after US tech losses

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Wednesday following heavy losses in US tech shares overnight.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 10 points at 7,712.

Overnight, the Dow edged up 0.1%, but the S&P 500 fell 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped 1.6%.

There wasn’t much news on the corporate front as the holiday lull continued, but Hungary-based budget airline Wizz Air reported a strong rise in December passenger numbers as demand continued to rebound from the Covid pandemic.

The company said it carried 4,964,857 passengers, an 18.8% increase year on year. For the year as a whole numbers rose by 26.1% to 66.4 million.

December’s load factor, which measures how full an airline’s planes are, fell 2.4 percentage points to 82.1% year on year.

Elsewhere, Learning Technologies Group (LTG), the AIM-listed workplace digital learning solutions firm, has successfully completed the disposal of Lorien Engineering Solutions, finalising its exit from non-core assets.

The disposal to engineering consultancy NIRAS Group, first announced in December, will see LTG receive $21.4m. The deal follows the closure of a UK apprenticeships business in January 2023.