16th Feb 2015 07:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open higher Monday ahead of the second Eurogroup meeting to negotiate Greece's debt bailout.
The second meeting of Eurozone finance ministers to discuss the next steps for Greece following Wednesday's meeting last week. Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens on Sunday to protest the austerity policies imposed on the country by its foreign creditors. The protesters gathered outside the Greek Parliament to demand an end to the policies they said were "impoverishing" the people and leading to an exodus of young people facing unemployment at home.
IG indicates the FTSE 100 will open 9 points higher at 6,882.7 . The index closed up 0.7% Friday at 6,873.52 following better-than-expected economic results from key nations in the eurozone, while oil stocks were bolstered as Brent oil surpassed the USD60 a barrel mark for the first time this year.
Brent oil trades at USD61.54 a barrel ahead of the open Monday.
Wall Street also closed higher Friday, with the DJIA ending up 0.3%, having surpassed the 18,000 mark for the first time in 2015. The S&P 500 closed up 0.4% having touched a record intraday high. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.8%.
US indices will be closed Monday to celebrate President's Day.
In Asia on Monday, the Japanese Nikkei closed up 0.5% after the Japanese economy exited recession.
Japan's gross domestic product grew 2.2% on year in the fourth quarter of 2014, the Cabinet Office said in Sunday's preliminary reading. The headline figure was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 3.7% following the revised 2.3% decline in the third quarter (originally -1.9%). It did, however, mark an end to the recession that started with a 7.1% tumble in Q2 - which was due in large part to a sharp decline in consumer spending following the implementation of a consumption tax hike in April.
The Hang Seng trades up 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite trades up 0.5%.
In the corporate calendar Monday full-year results are out from gold miner Acacia Mining, property company Hammerson, and trading software and services company Fidessa Group.
The economic calendar on Monday is very quiet, with no US releases due to its holiday. Eurozone trade balances for December at 1000 GMT, and German Buba monthly report expected at 1100 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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