(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to see a strong start on Tuesday, following a tech-led rally on Wall Street, which spurred strong trading across global equity markets.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open up 28.6 points, 0.4%, at 7,722.79 on Tuesday. The index of London large-caps closed up 4.58 points, 0.1%, at 7,694.19 on Monday.

In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.6%, the S&P 500 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.2%.

Nvidia rose 6.4% hitting a new all-time high after revealing three new artificial intelligence chips aimed at running AI from home.

Meanwhile, Boeing shares fell 6.9%, after airlines and safety bodies around the world grounded some versions of the company's 737 MAX 9 jets pending inspections.

More bad news has come for the airplane maker, as United Airlines and Alaska Airlines reported loose hardware had been discovered on some of their Boeing 737 MAX 9 models during preliminary inspections.

In early local news, UK retail sales growth was weaker in December, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium.

The latest BRC-KPMG tracker for 2023 showed retail sales increased by 3.6% from 2022. Annually, food growth was up 8.1% and non-food declined by 0.1%.

UK total retail sales increased by 1.7% in December, against growth of 6.9% in December a year earlier. This was below the 3-month average growth of 2.3% and below the 12-month average growth of 3.6%. The period covers the five weeks November 26 to December 30.

"Christmas shoppers ditched clothing, jewellery and technology gifts, opting for beauty, health and personal care products, which, along with food and drink drove festive sales this year. Online sales remained in negative territory, although the decline was weaker than seen in recent months with sales down nearly 1% on last year," said Paul Martin, UK head of Retail, KPMG.

Sterling was quoted at USD1.2742 early Tuesday, lower than USD1.2757 at the London equities close on Monday. The euro traded at USD1.0954, lower than USD1.0974. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY143.95, up versus JPY143.84.

The latest retreat in oil prices was also helping to boost sentiment, soothing fears of a resurgence of energy-led inflationary pressures. Brent oil was trading at USD76.02 a barrel early Tuesday, higher than USD75.73 late Monday.

"The main catalyst for the slide in energy prices was two-fold. The slide in oil prices came about because of Saudi Aramco cutting selling prices over concern that US producers are stealing market share, as well as slowing demand. Natural gas prices also slid despite colder weather with supplies and inventory remaining at highly elevated levels," explained CMC Markets UK's chief market analyst, Michael Hewson.

In Asia on Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed up 1.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong were both up 0.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.9%.

Gold was quoted at USD2,032.25 an ounce early Tuesday, flat from USD2,032.33 on Monday.

In Tuesday's UK corporate calendar, B&M will publish a trading statement. There are also half year results from Games Workshop.

The economic calendar for Tuesday sees an unemployment reading for the eurozone at 0900 GMT.

By Elizabeth Winters, Alliance News deputy news editor

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