London pre-open: North Korea still in focus
Stocks are set to start the session slightly higher as traders wait on the latest UK CPI data while monitoring the continuing newsflow coming from the North Korean peninsula.
The Footsie was seen starting the day two points higher from Monday's closing level of 7,353.89.
Overnight, North Korea's state media said that its leader Kim Jong-un had reviewed plans to fire missiles towards the US Pacific territoy of Guam but would wait and watch to see what the US did.
Later, US Defence Secretary James Mattis reportedly said that if Pyongyang fired a missile that hit the US or its territories then it would be "game on" and that his country would "take out" any missile heading towards its soil, which includes Guam.
Mattis went on to say that if North Korea fired at the US, "it could escalate into war very quickly [...] yes, that's called war, if they shoot at us."
"If they shoot at the United States, I’m assuming they hit the United States -- if they do that, then it’s 'game on'."
His remarks came on the heels of South Korean president Moon Jae-in stressing the day before that "no one may decide to take military action without the consent" of the South.
That statement was seen by some observers as being slightly at odds with those from its allies, including the US.
Mattis reportedly preferred to be ambiguous when asked what the response would be if the missiles only hit the sea around Guam. However, he warned against his words being interpreted as any sort of declaration of war. That, he said, "is up to the president, perhaps up to the Congress. The bottom line is we will defend the country from an attack."
Against that backdrop, UK consumer price data scheduled for release at 0930 BST was expected to show inflation rising from a 2.6% year-on-year pace to 2.7%.
On the economic calendar for later in the day, US retail sales figures for July were scheduled for release at 1330 BST, alongside the Federal Reserve bank of New York's regional manufacturing gauge.
Hargreaves Lansdown remains committed to special dividends
Financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown said full year net new business inflows rose 15% to £6.9bn as it said it had "sufficiently strong financial, liquidity and capital positions to execute its strategy without further constraints and to operate a sustainable and progressive ordinary dividend policy going forward." The board added that it "remains committed to paying special dividends in future years when sufficient excess cash and capital exist after taking account of the group's growth, investment and prospective regulatory capital requirements at the time."
Riverstone Energy Limited (REL) has received the balance of $14m from the sale of its interests in Rock Oil last October, which had been held in escrow. The investment company's manager, Riverstone Energy Capital Partners, will acquire just over £1.1m REL shares through secondary market purchases at prices below the prevailing published net asset value of the company over a period of up to four months, in order to satisfy the terms of the performance allocation payment.
Georgia Healthcare saw profits rocket over the first half of the year, boosted by its acquisition of pharmacy chains Pharmadepot and GPC. The firm posted a 44.9% jump in profits before tax to 24.3m Georgian Lari at the half-year stage as its top line bulged by 112.9% to GEL371m. Yet earnings per share were 3.6% lower versus the comparable year-ago period to GEL0.12 (4p) due to the impact of extraordinary charges. Sales were driven by a 624.5% surge at its pharma unit to reach GEL222.3m, which also benefitted from a five and a half percentage point increase in its gross profit margins to 23.9%.