London pre-open: Stocks to fall after weak Asian session

London stocks were set to fall at the open on Thursday following a weak session in Asia, as investors digested the latest Federal Reserve minutes.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 25 points lower at 7,126, with England’s Euros victory overnight failing to provide a boost.

Danske Bank said: "Minutes from the June FOMC meeting showed two camps wrangling over whether the US economy was ready for a speedier reduction of asset purchases. Some officials hinted that tapering of purchases may start earlier than expected given the stronger economic outlook, but some officials also urged caution that incoming information in the coming months would provide a better assessment of the path of the labour market and inflation.

"Fed officials also discussed how to go about scaling back asset purchases when the time comes and after a growing chorus of officials has publicly voiced preference for ending purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities sooner than Treasury bonds, this view was also again underscored in the minutes."

In corporate news, housebuilder Persimmon is accelerating a capital return to shareholders as strong first-half trading generated revenue of £1.84bn.

The company said shareholders will receive a payout of 110p a share. Persimmon’s original plan was to make two payments in August and December. The forward order book is £1.82bn, compared with £1.86bn last year and £1.62bn in 2019 before the Covid pandemic struck.

B&M European Value Retail said it made a strong start to the year as it reported first-quarter UK like-for-like sales up by more than a fifth compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Revenue at core B&M UK stores open a year or more increased 21.3% in the 13 weeks to 26 June from two years before.

Like-for-like sales fell 4.4% from a year earlier. Group revenue rose 3.1% at constant currency from a year earlier and B&M said its plans for the year were on track.