London pre-open: Stocks seen down; UK economy shrinks more than expected

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Thursday following a mostly weaker US close and after the release of disappointing UK GDP data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 50 points.

Figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy shrank 0.3% in April following 0.2% growth in March. Economists were expecting a contraction of 0.1%.

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: "The economy contracted in April, with services and manufacturing both falling. However, over the last three months as a whole GDP still grew, with signs that some activity may have been brought forward from April to earlier in the year.

"Both legal and real estate firms fared badly in April, following a sharp increase in house sales in March when buyers rushed to complete purchases ahead of changes to stamp duty. Car manufacturing also performed poorly after growing in the first quarter of the year."

McKeown said that after increasing for each of the four preceding months, April saw the largest monthly fall on record in goods exports to the US, with falls across most types of goods following the recent introduction of tariffs.

In corporate news, housebuilder Crest Nicholson held annual guidance after a rise in adjusted half-year earnings amid an easing in mortgage costs as interest rates fall.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose to �7.9m from �2.6m. Completions fell to 739 from 788 as the company switched focus to open market homes in the mid premium segment to increase profitability.

Real estate group Segro said it has appointed former investment banker Susanne Schroeter-Crossan as its new chief financial officer, succeeding Soumen Das who will retire from the role in December after nearly nine years.

Schroeter-Crossan is currently the CFO of Berlin-based freight and logistics company Sennder Technologies and a supervisory board member of Zalando, and was the former CFO of Frankfurt-listed residential real estate firm LEG Immobilien.

Previously, she held a number of senior capital markets roles with Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered.