London pre-open: Stocks seen up as Trump on course to win US presidential race

London stocks looked set to gain at the open on Wednesday as Donald Trump was on course to win the US presidential race.

The FTSE 100 was called to open around 50 points higher.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto, said: "Donald Trump has won, the GOP have flipped the Senate and could take the House too. If Trump’s really on to take the national vote too it’s a huge mandate for his platform.

"But what is this? Trade and tariffs and taxation would be the 3Ts of the Trump Trade, followed by deregulation. Bear in mind as a caveat that the House is still up for grabs and Trump had complete control of Congress last time and it didn’t mean he could do everything he said he would.

"I did predict this yesterday: My bet is that Trump wins a lot more easily than the polls indicate and we get this wrapped up by breakfast tomorrow morning.

"There is relief in the market that this was clean and clear - no ambiguity about this result. We can also see some clear market reaction to the result - Russell 2,000 futures surged 4% to highest in three years, S&P 500, Dow futures and Nasdaq futures +2%, Bitcoin rallied to an all-time high and the US dollar is bid up across the board whilst oil and gold fell.

"Stocks are probably less sensitive to the Trump Trade than the FX space and this has been borne out so far - a lot more orderly than 2016 - partly because Trump is known and partly because it WAS NOT A SURPRISE!"

In corporate news, housebuilder Persimmon said it is on track to hit full-year targets for housing completions this year after an in-line third-quarter performance, with demand helped by improvements in customer sentiment as interest rates begin to reduce and affordability improves.

The company delivered 1,416 homes in the third quarter, slightly down from 1,439 last year, though pricing held firm.

Marks & Spencer reported better-than-expected first-half profits as it said the food and clothing segments have now delivered market share growth for four consecutive years.

In the 26 weeks to 28 September, profit before tax and adjusting items rose 17.2% to £407.8m, coming in ahead of consensus expectations of £361m.

Statutory revenue was up 5.7% to £6.5bn, with food sales 8.1% higher and clothing and home sales up 4.7%.