London pre-open: Stocks to gain in quiet trade; Vistry warns on profits again

London stocks were set to gain at the open on Tuesday following a positive close on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 52 points higher in what is expected to be a quiet half day of trading, as investors wind down for the Christmas and new year break.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "It’s never too late to believe in Santa. Investors on Monday were shrugging off the bad news of past week - especially the one that suggested that the Federal Reserve (Fed) would cut its rates only two times in 2025 due to a too resilient US economy.

"Yesterday’s data that showed that the US durable goods orders fell more than expected in November, the new home sales rebounded slightly less than expected and the consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped in December.

"This bag of bad news helped tempering the latest hawkish shift in Fed expectations. As such, the buyers are out and buying. The S&P 500 rebounded 0.73%, Nasdaq 100 rallied more than 1% and even the European Stoxx 600 eked out a small gain, as Novo Nordisk in Denmark jumped more than 5.5% as investors rushed in to buy a dip on bet that the weight loss drugs are here to stay."

In corporate news, there was no Christmas cheer for Vistry shareholders as the housebuilder slashed profit guidance yet again, citing delays to expected year-end transactions and completions.

The company said it now expected adjusted profit before tax for the year to 31 December to be around £250m, compared with previous guidance of £300m.

Vistry said a number of agreements with partners had taken longer to conclude and forecast these to be finished in fiscal 2025 and also pulled a number of proposed deals where the commercial terms on offer “were not sufficiently attractive”.

Vistry had already cut guidance in October and November.