21st Apr 2015 05:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 is expected to open a touch lower Tuesday on a day light on significant economic data.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 3.6 points lower at 7,048.5. The index closed up 0.8% at 7,052.13 on Monday following stimulus measures from the Chinese central bank on Sunday.
Wall Street also ended higher on Monday. The DJIA closed up 1.7%, the S&P 500 ended up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.3%.
Asian stock markets have taken their lead from Wall Street to trade higher Tuesday. The Japanese Nikkei is trading up 1.2%, the Hang Seng is up 2.0%, and the Shanghai Composite is up 0.9%.
However, in Europe, Greece's financing issues remain in the spotlight. On Monday, a number of media outlets reported that the Greek government ordered a mandatory transfer of cash reserves from pensions funds and other state bodies to its central bank, in a desperate bid to gather enough cash to remain solvent.
"The move by the government to effectively confiscate cash reserves from public sector purses throughout Greece is very worrying for two reasons, it reeks of desperation and gives the impression that they are not optimistic on a deal being reached on reforms," says Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
"It's believed that this extraordinary measure will raise just over EUR2 billion which will buy the government a little more time, but I don't know what it hopes to achieve," Erlam adds.
In the UK corporate calendar, there are third-quarter results from broadcaster Sky, first-quarter results from chip maker ARM Holdings, and half-year results from Associated British Foods. Pets at Home Group issues a trading statement, and miner Rio Tinto has issued a first quarter operational review.
In the economic calendar Tuesday, there are German and eurozone ZEW survey results at 1000 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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