London pre-open: Stocks seen up after Nasdaq rally

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to gain at the open on Wednesday following a rally in US tech stocks overnight. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 14 points higher.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "Nvidia selloff didn't deepen yesterday, on the contrary, the recent end-of-quarter/end-of-the-first-half pullback attracted dip buyers - if you can call it a dip yet - and Nvidia shares ended up jumping by almost 7% in a single session.

"Yesterday's jump will certainly help to cool the downside pressure and ease long squeeze worries for Nvidia, but the decent and rapid price pullback is a sign that we might see an increased volatility and two-sided price moves moving forward. For now though, the fact that the selloff was not due to a fundamental reason certainly helped limiting damages.

"When Nvidia smiles, major US indices follow suit. The S&P500 advanced 0.39% yesterday while Nasdaq 100 jumped more than 1%."

In UK corporate news, PZ Cussons said in an update that trading for the final quarter of the financial year met management expectations, with anticipated full-year revenue of £528m .

Despite significant currency depreciation in Nigeria, the company said it expected to report an adjusted operating profit of £55m to £60m, and gross debt within £160m to £180m. It also noted ongoing efforts to enhance shareholder value through a strategic portfolio transformation, with full year results to be disclosed on 18 September.

Anglo American reported another dip in rough diamond sales from De Beers as it warned of a "protracted" recovery in demand.

In what is generally a quieter period for rough diamond sales, De Beers' fifth sales cycle generated $315m, down from $383m in the fourth cycle and $446m in the third. However, this was also down from $456m in the fifth cycle of 2023.

Insurance and pensions group Phoenix said it was looking to offload its SunLife business after deciding it was no longer core to operations.

Phoenix said it had received a "a number of initial expressions of interest from third parties", but warned there could be no certainty at this stage that a disposal will occur.

SunLife is a leading provider of financial protection products direct to the over 50s market in the UK and reported profit after tax of £16m in 2023.