London pre-open: Stocks seen muted amid growing doubts over lockdown easing
London stocks were set for a muted open on Tuesday amid reports that the lifting of lockdown measures could be delayed by between two weeks and a month.
The FTSE 100 was called to open five points higher at 7,082.
According to reports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a delay to the fourth stage of his roadmap out of lockdown next week amid growing concern about the Indian variant of Covid-19.
The Times reported a Cabinet source as saying that a delay of up to a month was likely to allow more time to fully vaccinate over-50s and for the effect of the jabs to kick in. However, a spokesperson for Number 10 told The Times there was "nothing in the data" to indicate that easing could not go ahead as planned on 21 June.
In corporate news, British American Tobacco increased its guidance for annual revenue growth at constant currency to more than 5% from an earlier forecast of 3-5% as it attracted more non-combustible product customers and reported a solid performance for tobacco brands.
The FTSE 100 group said it acquired 1.4 million customers for vaping and other non-combustible products during the first half and that it gained market share across all three categories. Combustible revenue was supported by a recovery in emerging markets such as Bangladesh and Pakistan and strong constant currency growth in the US.
Buy-to-let specialist lender Paragon Bank reported higher interim profits and a £40m share buyback as the housing market recovered from the Covid pandemic.
The company posted a 68.8% rise in profits to £96.4m and declared a 7.2p-a-share dividend for the six months to March 31.