| London stocks started slightly lower on Tuesday despite overnight gains on Wall Street, as banking shares weighed on the index and traders looked ahead to various economic and political risk factors around the world. The FTSE 100 was almost flat after an hour of trading, down just over three points at 7,738.01, while the pound rubbed out small early losses to flatten off at $1.3322 and €1.1388. "Last night Bank of England policymaker Silvana Tenreyro dampened expectations of multiple UK rate hikes this year, adding to the pound’s weakness and providing some cushion for the FTSE," said market analyst Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets. The interest rate news was a drag for high street banks. "This with the spectre of Brexit again in the spotlight with the UK government delaying publication of its Brexit white paper until after the June EU summit, impacting UK businesses investment planning, and Parliament’s Brexit Bill debate and vote scheduled for June 12." Markets will be watching for any headlines as the latest round of Brexit talks were due to kick off in Brussels on Tuesday. British business chiefs had told the Prime Minister to get on with taking key decisions on the UK's exit from the bloc in a regularly scheduled meeting at Downing Street, according to reports. The Prime Minister has a week to forge a compromise with Tory backbench rebels over Brexit after a key House of Commons debate was tabled for next Tuesday. A dozen rebel backbenchers have warned they will help a vote down proposed post-Brexit customs arrangements, even if the government puts forward a new compromise agreement, The Times reported. The spectre of European political risk, which had hit markets at the end of last month, was lingering as Italy's newly minted Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, was set to address his country's Senate at 1100 BST, with a confidence vote in both houses set to follow, with the first one in that same chamber scheduled for later on Tuesday evening followed by another in the lower house on Wednesday. Closer to home, IHS Markit's UK services sector purchasing managers' index report is scheduled for release at 0930 BST, with investors keen for a better bead on the extent of the bounce back in activity levels in the British economy after the weak start to the year. Earlier, the Eurozone services PMI just undershoot expecations, while the Institute for Supply Management's US services PMI is set to come at 1500 BST. COMPANY NEWS Shares in RBS outpaced the morning's decline of its peers after the government sold off a 7.7% stake in the bank the previous afternoon, with Chancellor Philip Hammond billing it as an important step forwards in putting the financial crisis "behind us". Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking and Barclays were all among the worse performers on the morning, but HSBC was flat. AstraZeneca was little moved after it and partner Merck announced that cancer treatment Lynparza had improved progression-free survival in advanced prostate cancer, but not overall survival. The data, which was presented at an oncology conference in the US, showed that Lynparza plus abiraterone achieved a progression-free survival of 13.8 months versus 8.2 months for abiraterone alone and a 35% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death. The Renewables Infrastructure Group said it had bought two onshore wind farms in Northern France for roughly €28m. The windfarms are currently being built and expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2018 when they will have a combined operating capacity of 31.8MW, TRIG said. St Modwen Properties said despite continued uncertainties in the external environment and challenges in parts of the UK property market, the outlook for its two key sectors - industrial/logistics and regional house building - remained "positive". Given its extensive land bank and the opportunity to recycle capital out of its existing assets, St. Modwen said it was "well placed" to accelerate the delivery of its substantial pipeline using its own resources in the years ahead. Merlin Entertainment confirmed the roll out of its first five Peppa Pig World of Play attractions as being in Shanghai's LC Mall in late 2018, with four further sites secured in Beijing, Dallas, Michigan and the New York area all for planned openings before the end of 2019. | 
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