12th Feb 2015 07:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are set to open slightly lower Thursday as talks between the Eurogroup finance ministers and Greece over the country's debt remain at a stalemate.
IG indicates the FTSE 100 to open 5 points lower at 6,813.2. The index closed down 0.2% at 6,818.17 amid a heavy day of corporate news and a fall in oil prices.
Brent oil has made up some ground ahead of the open Thursday, trading at USD56.52 a barrel.
Eurozone finance ministers ended their talks without any major breakthrough on the future course of action on Greek debt funding. "We had an intense discussion and constructive, covering a lot of ground, also making progress, but not enough progress at this point to come to joint conclusions," Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said at the press conference in Brussels late Wednesday.
US stocks ended mixed Wednesday. The DJIA closed slightly lower, the S&P 500 ended flat, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.3%.
In Asia Thursday the Japanese Nikkei closed up 1.9%, catching up after a holiday on Wednesday, while the Hang Seng trades up 0.3%, and the Shanghai Composite is up 0.4%.
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto reported a fall in underlying earnings in 2014, but said it would hike its dividend and will launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme. The group said its underlying earnings for the year to the end of December hit USD9.31 billion, down from USD10.2 billion last year.
In the UK corporate calendar, Shire will release its full-year results at 1200 GMT. At 0700 GMT, publishing firm Informa and ceramic products producer Morgan Advanced Materials will release full-year results. Lancashire Holdings will report fourth quarter results, while online property listings company Zoopla Property Group will issue a interim management statement. Imperial Tobacco Group will release a first quarter interim management statement and UK Commercial Property Trust will issue a trading statement.
In the economic calendar, German consumer price index is at 0700 GMT, the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report and inflation letter is due to be released at 1030 GMT. In the afternoon, US retail sales for January is at 1330 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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Related Shares:
Rio TintoLancashire HoldingsUKCM.LShireMorgan Advanced MaterialsInformaZPLA.LIMT.L