FTSE 100 preview: Shares to gain, MPC vote in focus
The FTSE 100 is seen opening 17-19 points or 0.4% higher on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, tracking gains on Wall Street and in Asia.
Price check: How will shares react to news from the Bank of England?
The blue-chip index closed up 8.24 points, or 0.3%, on Tuesday at 5,142.60 having reached a fresh 2009 intraday peak in the session at 5,189.88, resuming its recent six-session winning streak after a wobble on Monday.
Britain has probably come out of recession but the pace of recovery in 2010 will be slow, with tight credit and weak domestic demand posing obstacles to an upturn, the Confederation of British Industry said on Wednesday.
The business group said it expected the economy to have grown 0.3% between July and September, and forecast an expansion of 0.4% for the fourth quarter - an improvement from its prognosis in June that growth would not return until early next year.
Investors will eye the interest rate and quantitive easing vote outcome from this month's Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting, with a 9-0 decision to maintain the staus quo expected to be confirmed.
After the London close, investor attention will turn to the outcome of the latest two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, although no change is expected to US monetary policy.
Ahead of that, investors will have the latest US mortgage and refinancing indexes to digest.
Four FTSE 100 companies will trade ex-dividend on Wednesday, with Aviva, Centrica, G4S, and Petrofac knocking 1.94 points off the blue chip index.
Redrow and Barratt Developments are expected to launch long anticipated rights issues today, with Barratt seen raising £700m and Redrow £150m, according to reports.
Vodafone, which directly owns 52% of its Indian mobile joint venture Vodafone Essar, is buying a 6% stake from two of its associates for 8.62bn rupees ($180m), India's Economic Times reported on Wednesday.
Two independent directors are to stand down from the board of Lloyds Banking Group. Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, will leave the board at the end of the year, while Philip Green, chief executive of United Utilities, will leave next month, the Times said.
Investors in Cadbury have urged the US food giant Kraft to make a firm offer of around 850p per share, which would value the company at £11bn, The Guardian said.
BP's Alaska unit has paid $1.7m in civil fines to settle complaints that it violated state rules oil-spill control rules, Alaska officials said Tuesday.
The Cosmen family has provided a written undertaking to subscribe to the National Express £300m rights issue should it fail to make a 500 pence-per-share offer for the group, the Daily Telegraph said.
Independent News & Media is close to a debt-for-equity deal that would end uncertainty over its finances while allowing the O'Reillys to retain some control over the publisher, an industry source said on Tuesday.
There will be results today from Game Group, Ideal Shopping Direct, The Teg Group, and Futura Medical. United Utilities will issue a trading update.
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