London pre-open: Stocks to rise after Wall St gains; Kingfisher lifts guidance
22nd Sep 2026 07:30
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Tuesday following solid gains on Wall Street, led by AI-linked shares, as investors mulled the latest UK borrowing figures.
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 11 points higher.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "What a difference a week can make! Last week started with crude oil prices hitting fresh highs since May, while AI enablers were being battered by news that frontier-model providers like OpenAI and Anthropic were calling for slower progress amid concerns over the potential risks of increasingly powerful AI.
"This week kicks off with crude oil retreating sharply on Middle East peace hopes, and AI enablers roaring on news that Muse AI - Meta's latest personal AI agent - has risen to the top of mobile app charts, reshuffling the cards in favour of the AI trade. Muse AI - capable of drawing data across Meta's apps, connecting with third-party services and completing tasks on a user's behalf - fuelled AI demand expectations across the supply chain, as agents could require significantly more computing power than general-purpose chatbots."
Data released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed the government borrowed more than expected last month, as spending outstripped a rise in tax receipts.
Public sector net borrowing was £18.3bn in August, up £2.9bn on the same month last year and higher than the £15.7bn markets had pencilled in. It also exceeded the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast by £3.5bn.
Self-assessed income tax receipts in July and August rose by £1.9bn, to £18.6bn.
In corporate news, DIY retailer Kingfisher lifted annual guidance after a jump in half-year profits driven by a strong performance at its Screwfix unit which reported a 5.6% jump in like-for-like sales.
The owner of B&Q, Brico Depot and Castorama said it now expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £595m-£635m (previously £565m-£625m) and free cash flow of £480m-£520m (£450m-£510m). Adjusted earnings for the six months to 31 July rose 9.9% to £404m driven by gross margin expansion.
Biotechnology firm Oxford Biomedica said that strong commercial momentum and expanding manufacturing capacity continued to underpin its long‑term growth outlook, as the group reiterated full‑year guidance alongside a solid first‑half performance.
Oxford Biomedica delivered 10% constant‑currency revenue growth in H126 to £80.2m, supported by demand across manufacturing and development services. Revenue visibility also strengthened, with a backlog of around £193m at 30 June and roughly £168m of forecast FY26 revenue already covered by contracted orders as of September.
Elsewhere, Rentokil Initial said it has agreed to sell SOLitude and its Vertex Aquatic Solutions divisions to Bain Capital for $230m.
Total estimated net cash proceeds after tax are expected to be around $180m.