28th May 2014 06:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open flat to fractionally higher Wednesday after positive sessions overnight on Wall Street and in Asia, with the FTSE 100 again set to close in on its all-time high after a strong performance on Tuesday.
London's major stock indices closed significantly higher Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 recording its biggest daily gain for over two weeks to end the day at 6,844.94, just over 100 points shy of its record high.
The blue-chip index rose to a fourteen year high earlier this month, but failed to push higher after some disappointing Chinese data and individual stock movements.
However, "given current sentiment, it is increasingly difficult to imagine what the catalyst would be to prompt any sort of sharp downward move in equity markets given how markets continue to go from strength to strength on a day to day basis, with their ability to cast aside any form of negative narrative," says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
On Tuesday, Wall Street closed materially higher. The DJIA ended up 0.4% at 16,675.5, the NASDAQ Composite closed up 1.2% at 4,237.068, and the S&P 500 closed up 0.6% at 1,911.91, having hit a record high of 1,912.28 earlier in the session.
In Asia, the Hang Seng trades up 0.9%, while the Shanghai Composite index is up 0.4%. The Nikkei in Tokyo closed up 0.5%.
The FTSE 100 is indicated to open flat to fractionally higher. CMC Markets expects the blue-chip index to open unchanged at 6,845, while IG calls it to open marginally higher at around 6,848.
"In a very light day for key data, second tier releases should attract more interest than usual," says Nikesh Sawjani, UK macroeconomist at Lloyds Bank. "With Germany leading the recovery in the euro area, today's data will be watched for further confirmation that the German economy continues to offset weak growth elsewhere in the region," he adds.
French consumer spending and produce price data are released at 0745 BST, with German unemployment figures at 0855 BST. The latest reading of Italian business confidence is due to be published at 0900 BST, with eurozone industrial confidence, consumer confidence, and services sentiment data due at 1000 BST. The Confederation of British Industry's distributive trades survey is released at 1100 BST.
In the US, the Mortgage Bankers Association releases its MBA mortgage applications data at 1200 BST.
In the forex market, ahead of the data, sterling trades at USD1.6811, EUR1.2327, CHF1.5077, and JPY171.351.
In corporate news, FTSE 250-listed De La Rue and Caledonia Investments have released full-year results Wednesday, while Brewin Dolphin has released half-year results.
By James Kemp; [email protected]; @jamespkemp
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