London pre-open: Small rebound expected early on

LONDON (ShareCast) - UK stocks are expected to open with small gains on Wednesday morning after a sharp drop the previous session as the Footsie pulled back from a new record high. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around 12 points higher than Tuesday's close of 7,030.53.

The index had retreated after setting a new all-time closing high of 7,103.98 on Monday.

"Even though we saw European markets fall sharply yesterday, stock markets have remained broadly within the ranges they've been in for the last few weeks, and that's broadly been true of US markets as well, even if we have seen marginal new all-time highs on the S&P500 and the FTSE100 this week," said analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets. Stocks to watch Adjusted group profits at Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) rose by 9% to £1.85m over the first three months of the year. However, statutory group profits decreased by 26% to £1.4bn, as adjusting items which in the year ago period led a net gain of £119m this time around generated a net loss of £511m. The lender's common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio rose to 10.6% from the 2014 figure of 10.3%, as CET1 capital improved to £41.8bn from £41.5bn. In the first quarter additional provisions of £800m were recognised for investigations and litigation primarily relating to foreign exchange, among other non-cash charges.

Mike Coupe, the chief executive of Sainsbury's supermarket group, has been handed a two year jail sentence in Egypt. Coupe was forced to attend a hearing last Sunday for an embezzlement charge over the collapse of a business Sainsbury's invested in 16 years ago. He will not have to return to Egypt to face authorities, however.

Sales for the first thirteen weeks of the year at Next were up 3.2% ahead of guidance from March. More than half of the rise came from the opening of new space, with warmer weather and an earlier brochure also helped.

Chile-focused copper miner Antofagasta (Other OTC: ANFGF - news) has scaled back its production guidance for 2015 after first-quarter output was affected by numerous water issues at its Los Pelambres and Centinela projects.