London pre-open: FTSE set for more heavy losses as Asian shares tank

The FTSE 100 was called to open down around 150 points.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday about recent market volatility, Trump said: "I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something and we have such a horrible - we have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen."

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "Asian stocks have tumbled and fallen sharply after there was no progress on US trade tariffs over the weekend. The Hang Seng is down 11% on Monday, the Nikkei is down 6% and the CSI 300 is lower by more than 7%.

"The lack of progress on individual deals between the US and its trading partners is seen as a green light to continue selling risk assets. European stocks are expected to extend declines on Monday, although the selling pressure is set to ease."

Brooks noted that last week was "truly historic" for financial markets.

"The S&P 500 lost $5.4 trillion in market value in two days," she said. "US stocks had their worst performance since Covid, the Nasdaq 100 entered a bear market, and Magnificent 7 lost more than 10%, which could pressure US tech magnates, who are big supporters of the President, to push for a pause in tariffs.

"In a sweeping market sell off, the only stocks on the S&P 500 that rallied last week included health insurers and Dollar General, which are considered recession proof. Tech stocks fared worse, with only four stocks rallying last week. The UK fared better, as its defensive mix of stocks attracted plenty of interest.

"Utilities, insurers, big UK retailers like M&S and Next along with supermarkets, all bucked the global market trend and posted a gain last week. However, we could see last week’s winners come under pressure if there is a risk recovery this week."

On home shores, the latest data from Halifax showed that house prices fell again in March.

Prices declined by 0.5% on the month following a 0.2% drop in February. On the year, house prices were 2.8% higher in March, unchanged on the previous month.

The average price of a home stood at £296,699 in March, down from £298,274 in February.

Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said: "House prices rose in January as buyers rushed to beat the March stamp duty deadline. However, with those deals now completing, demand is returning to normal and new applications slowing. Our customers completed more house sales in March than in January and February combined, including the busiest single day on record. Following this burst of activity, house prices, which remain near record highs, unsurprisingly fell back last month.

"Looking ahead, potential buyers still face challenges from the new normal of higher borrowing costs, a limited supply of available properties to choose from, and an uncertain economic outlook.

"However, with further base rate cuts anticipated alongside positive wage growth, mortgage affordability should continue to improve gradually, and therefore we still expect a modest rise in house prices this year."

In corporate news, LondonMetric Property said it has sold £40.4m of mature and non-core urban warehousing across the UK, reflecting a net interest yield of 4.3%.

The five warehouses have been sold in separate transactions to owner occupiers and long only funds, the company said.

Ferrexpo reported its highest quarterly production since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reaching 2.1m tonnes in the first quarter, driven by strong demand for high-grade concentrate in Asia.

The company operated two of its four pelletising lines during most of the quarter but had since reduced to one line due to the suspension of VAT refunds.

It noted that it had reported no workplace fatalities for over four years, although its 12-month lost time injury frequency rate rose to 0.66, above the five-year average of 0.52.