London pre-open: Stocks seen lower after record highs

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to fall at the open on Monday, having a hit record high on Friday, as investors mulled the latest house price data and looked ahead to key UK jobs figures. The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 24 points, having closed up 1.4% at a record high of 8,505.22 on Friday.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "The UK labour market data for November and December are released on Tuesday. These are the first official jobs numbers since October's budget when the government announced a £25bn tax raid on businesses that included an increase in employers' national insurance.

"Analysts are expecting a 15k decline in payrolls for last month, which suggests that the increase in employer national insurance could be a contributing factor. Although the increase in the national living wage and the NI increase won't come into effect until April, they may have already triggered weakness in the UK data.

"Analysts also expect pay growth to rise yet again. Average weekly earnings are expected to rise to 5.6% YoY from 5.2% in October, while average weekly earnings including bonus are expected to rise to 5.5% from 5.2%. If rising wage data is confirmed, this could weigh on Bank of England rate cut expectations, which soared last week.

"If BOE rate cut expectations are scaled back after strong wage data, we doubt that this will boost the pound, as it may see a part reversal of the recent bond market rally. Also, FTSE 100 stocks may not be impacted since they are less affected by the UK's macro outlook and Bank of England interest rate forecasts."

Data released earlier by Rightmove showed that the average price of a property coming to market rose by 1.7% in January to £366,189 - the largest increase in prices at the start of the year since 2020.

Rightmove said a record number of early-bird new sellers have come to market since Boxing Day. This meant that buyers had the highest level of choice at the start of a year since 2015, which has also contributed to an encouraging start to 2025 buyer activity.

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said: "New sellers have started the year with a bang, with a record number coming to market not only on Boxing Day itself, but across the start of the year to date. We've also seen a strong start to the year in new seller asking prices, though given the higher-than-anticipated seller competition, we would expect this to slow down over the next few months. The record number of sellers we're seeing is a double-edged sword.

"It's encouraging to see so many sellers with the confidence to come to market, providing buyers with fresh choice. However, with lots of homes for buyers to consider, sellers will need to work even harder to stand out from the crowd and attract a buyer. This could be with a tempting asking price, standout home features, immaculate presentation of the home, or a combination of all of these. It's vital that in a competitive market, sellers take on the recommendations of their agent, particularly when it comes to setting a realistic price."

In corporate news, Wood Group said it had won a contract to provide long-term maintenance for Esso's onshore and offshore assets in Australia's Gippsland Basin.

The company will provide maintenance services and shutdown support to optimise operational performance of offshore assets in the Bass Strait along with the Longford and Long Island Point facilities in the state of Victoria where Esso has a joint venture with Woodside Energy. No financial details were disclosed.

Elsewhere, GSK said that European regulators have expanded the usage of GSK's Jemperli drug for endometrial cancer.

The European Commission said that, when used alongside chemotherapy, Jemperli (otherwise known as dostarlimab) can now be used to treat people with mismatch repair proficient (MMRp)/microsatellite stable (MSS) tumours, which represent approximately 75% of patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer.