London pre-open: Stocks to fall as US-Iran tensions escalate; Burnham to become PM

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Monday as Andy Burnham was set to become Prime Minister and as oil prices rose amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 16 points lower. At 0715 BST, Brent crude was up 3% at $90.75 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 2.7% higher at $84.70 after US forces attacked Iran for the ninth night and Iran pledged that not a "single drop" of oil or gas would transit through the Strait of Hormuz if US aggression continues.

On home shores, current PM Keir Starmer will tender his official resignation to King Charles, who will then invite Burnham to form a new government.

Burnham will announce his Cabinet picks following reports that Shabana Mahmood will be made chancellor.

In corporate news, Ryanair posted a 34% drop in first-quarter profit after tax, missing analysts' expectations, as fuel prices jumped and fares fell due to the conflict in the Middle East and the timing of Easter.

Profit after tax declined to �538m from �820m in the same period a year earlier, as revenue nudged up 1% to �4.38bn. Analysts were expecting PAT of �579m.

Storage specialist Big Yellow reported a rise in first-quarter sales as cost cutting offset a slight fall in occupancy.

Like-for-like revenue rose 2% to �52.m in the three months to 30 June, with occupancy down 0.2 percentage points to 79.2%.

Drugmaker GSK said the European Medicines Agency had accepted its submission to update the label for its Bexsero asset, allowing for a singledose booster in people aged 10 and over who were previously vaccinated in childhood.

GSK said that, if approved, the booster would enable those who received Bexsero as infants to take a single additional dose from age 10 onwards, a move the firm believes could help reduce the burden of invasive meningococcal disease in countries with established MenB infant programmes.