(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open flat on Tuesday, while Asian markets failed to muster much enthusiasm about further rate cuts from China's central bank.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open down 3.7 points at 7,584.78 on Tuesday. The index of London large-caps closed down 54.24 points, or 0.7% at 7,588.48 on Monday
"With US markets closed, markets in Europe underwent a weak and subdued session at the start of the new week with yesterday's declines predominantly on the back of the late Friday sell-off in the US, which saw markets there close off their highs of the week," said CMC Markets' Michael Hewson.
Financial markets in New York were closed on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday.
The dollar was stronger in early exchanges in Europe on Tuesday.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2774 early Tuesday, down from USD1.2797 at the London equities close on Monday. The euro traded at USD1.0915, lower than USD1.0928. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY142.09, up versus JPY141.85.
In Asia on Tuesday, trading was mixed, despite China's central bank cutting two benchmark interest rates as part of recent measures to boost economic growth in the country.
The one-year loan prime rate, which serves as a benchmark for corporate loans, was reduced from 3.65% to 3.55%, the People's Bank of China said in a statement, while the five-year LPR, which is used to price mortgages, was cut from 4.3% to 4.2%.
This follows several similar measures in recent days in a bid to counter the post-Covid growth slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. Last week, the PBoC lowered two other key rates and pumped billions into financial markets, as fresh data showed the economy continued to struggle.
"Chinese stocks are under pressure since yesterday as investors were expecting stimulus measures last Friday, and they got nothing instead, as proof that Xi remains against the Chinese kind of stimulus that we got used to," CMC's Hewson continued.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.8%.
Gold was quoted at USD1,948.01 an ounce early Tuesday, lower than USD1,952.97 on Monday.
Brent oil was trading at USD75.94 a barrel, edging down from USD76.02.
In Tuesday's UK corporate calendar, there are full-year results from IG Design and a trading statement from SThree.
On the economic side, there's German producer inflation at 0700 BST.
By Elizabeth Winter, Alliance News senior markets reporter
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