24th Sep 2014 06:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open lower in the absence of any fresh economic data overnight, and as investors keep a nervous eye on US air strikes in Syria.
Futures indicate that the FTSE 100 will follow Tuesday's poor trading performance by opening 13 points lower at 6,663.5. The index closed at 6,676.08 on Tuesday, having fallen 1.4% on the day.
The US conducted air strikes Tuesday on Islamic State targets in Syria. President Barack Obama said the US stands "shoulder to shoulder" with its Arab partners in the conflict and said the bombing has disrupted attacks planned by "seasoned al-Qaeda fighters". A monitoring group with a network of pro-opposition activists on the ground in Syria said the Islamic State had lost at least 70 fighters with 50 members of the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and eight civilians killed in the Aleppo raids.
"Whilst many have seen this [US-Arab coalition] as a positive, given the importance of Middle Eastern involvement, the true impact upon the market is one of risk aversion," says Joshua Mahony, research analyst at Alpari.
US indices ended Tuesday lower, with the DJIA down 0.7%, the S&P 500 down 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.4%.
Asian equity markets, however, are performing better Wednesday, with the Hang Seng trading up 0.6%, the Shanghai Composite up 1.4%. The Nikkei underperformed, closing down 0.3%.
Commercial bank holding company Citizens Financial Group, owned by FTSE 100-listed lender Royal Bank of Scotland Group, priced its initial public offering of 140 million shares at USD21.50 per share, raising gross proceeds of about USD3 billion. The pricing was below the company's estimated range of USD23 to USD25 per share and immediately values Citizens Financial at about USD12 billion. Citizens Financial shares of common stock are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'CFG' on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, United Utilities Group, in a trading statement, said that current trading is in line with expectations and that first-half underlying profit seems to be similar to last year. The company added that it is confident of delivering its 2010-15 regulatory outperformance targets.
The morning's economic focus will be on Germany and the release of a series of sentiment surveys at 0900 BST. The country's business climate, current assessment and expectations surveys are all forecast to show a decline from their respective August readings.
In the afternoon, US MBA mortgage applications for last week will be released at 1200 BST, while new home sales change for August will be released at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]
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