30th Sep 2014 06:27
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open broadly flat Tuesday, following another negative session in Asia amid ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and ahead of key eurozone inflation data to come.
Futures indicate that the FTSE 100 will open unchanged at 6,646 points.
UK stocks made a soft start to the week on Monday, with China-exposed socks weighing heavily on the London market amid the pro-democracy protests in central Hong Kong and in the run up to the latest HSBC China Manufacturing PMI data released overnight. The FTSE 100, however, managed to claw back early losses to close broadly flat.
US stocks had a mixed session, with the DJIA and the S&P 500 both gaining 0.3%, but the Nasdaq Composite dropping 0.1%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index has seen another day of heavy losses Tuesday, currently trading down 1.4%, following the 1.9% drop on Monday. The Japanese Nikkei has closed down 1.0%, while China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.2%.
China's manufacturing sector continued to expand in September, if barely, according to the HSBC survey, which recorded a PMI reading of 50.2. That was unchanged from the August reading, although it was down from the flash estimate of 50.5 earlier this month.
From the UK corporate calendar Tuesday, Next, the UK's biggest clothing retailer, is likely to be in focus at the open after warning that it will have to lower its full-year sales forecasts if the current warm UK weather continues. The chain retailer said its third-quarter sales are ahead by 6.0%, which is below the 10% it had forecast.
Saga has released its maiden interim results since its May flotation. The over 50's holiday and insurance company said it is on track to meet market expectations for the full year.
Royal Bank of Scotland has released an unscheduled third quarter update Tuesday, while inter-dealer broker ICAP has released a trading statement.
Nationwide house price data already released Monday have shown a weaker picture than expected, with a month-on-month house price fall of 0.2% in September, compared to a rise of 0.8% in August and missing expectations for a continued rise of 0.5%. On an annual basis the average UK house price rose by 9.4%, less than the 10.4% that had been expected, and down from 11% in the previous month.
The final reading of second quarter UK GDP will be released at 0930 BST. Economists are expecting no revision from last month's second estimate of 3.2% year-on-year growth, which would confirm a small acceleration from the 3.0% year-on-year growth recorded in the first quarter.
The size of the UK current account deficit at the end of the second quarter will be revealed at the same time, along with total business investment numbers for the period.
Eurozone inflation data for September at 1000 BST will provide the economic highlight Tuesday. Economists are expecting consumer price growth to have slowed to 0.3% year-on-year in September, after having accelerated slightly to 0.4% in August. A slow down in CPI inflation would put yet more pressure on the European Central Bank to take further monetary easing steps to boost growth in the region when it meets Thursday.
Eurozone unemployment numbers for August are due at the same time Tuesday, with an unchanged rate of 11.5% expected.
In the afternoon Tuesday, US consumer confidence reading from the Conference Board is the data highlight. Due at 1500 BST, economists are looking for a marginal improvement in the level of confidence to 92.5 in September from 92.4 in August.
By Jon Darby; [email protected]; @jondarby100
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