London pre-open: Stocks seen muted as US, Iran halt hostilies after weekend clashes

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for a muted open on Monday as the US and Iran agreed to halt hostilities after exchanging strikes over the weekend.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around five points higher.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote said: "Given the ugly weekend news regarding the US and Iran's mutual attacks, I was expecting the week to start on a sour note. But not at all. The two countries announced that they would stop fighting, and the sun is shining again.

"Although traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been affected since the attacks began last week, the impact on oil prices remains relatively contained. Last week's news that some key markets have even turned oversupplied thanks to the release of strategic reserves and oil tankers quietly making their way out of Hormuz has certainly helped investors react more moderately to the latest escalation than they would have just a few weeks ago. As such, US crude didn't surpass $70.60 per barrel during the initial bout of unease in Asia and is consolidating around the $70pb mark at the time of writing. Brent crude is also trading in a tight range around $73pb."

On home shores, investors will turn their attention to consumer credit, mortgage approvals and net lending figures for May at 0930 BST.

On the political front, Andy Burnham is set to give his first speech on Monday since launching a bid to become Prime Minister. He is expected to set out a commitment to a "10-year mission" to raise living standards and plans to devolve power away from London. This would involve moving part of his prime ministerial operation to the North.

In corporate news, BT Group and Verizon Communications have agreed to combine their international operations in a 50:50 joint venture, it was announced.

The two telecoms firms will hold equal voting rights, with Verizon paying BT an equalisation payment of $645m. The JV - which BT said was designed "specifically for a cloud-first world in the age of AI" - will have around 3,000 customers in more than 180 countries, with combined annual revenues of around $4bn.

Private equity group Bridgepoint said it was buying the real estate arm of US investment firm Kayne Anderson for $1.4bn, as it makes a move into the US property sector.

The deal comprises $759m in cash and around 189m newly-issued Bridgepoint shares.

Plus500 announced the launch of sports event-based contracts in the US, expanding its prediction markets offering there.

It noted that these CFTC-regulated financial contracts represent the highest-engagement category in prediction markets and "significantly" expand its addressable market.

The new offering provides US retail customers with access to CFTC-regulated Kalshi sports event-based contracts, delivered through the company's proprietary futures trading platform.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca said its breast cancer therapy Datroway has been recommended for approval in the EU as a firstline monotherapy for adults with unresectable or metastatic triplenegative breast cancer who are not eligible for PD1/PDL1 inhibitor treatment.

AstraZeneca said the positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use was based on results from its Phase III TROPIONBreast02 trial.