FTSE preview: Shares down, inflation due
The FTSE 100 index is seen falling on Tuesday as investors awaited key US earnings and UK inflation, with energy stocks likely to be weak on lower oil prices.
Having a graph: Shares are becoming more volatile.
The UK blue chip index looks set to shed 21 to 23 points, or 0.4%, according to financial bookmakers, after it closed 14.79 points, or 0.3%, higher at 5,672.40 on Monday.
"Sandwiched between two psychological levels - 5,600 and 5,700 - the FTSE appears to be increasing in volatility with range-bound, sideways movement dominating the short-term intraday time frames," Raghee Horner, Autochartist's chief market analyst, said.
US stocks drifted in the lightest trading volume of the year on Monday, with expectations the Federal Reserve will flood markets with even more cash fully priced in to the market.
And moves were muted as investors waited for the US third-quarter reporting season to get properly underway, with figures due among others from Intel on Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday, Google on Thursday, and General Electric on Friday.
British retail sales growth halved last month, led by a drop in big-ticket items as uncertainty ahead of government spending cuts made consumers nervous, a survey by the British Retail Consortium showed.
House prices in England and Wales suffered their sharpest fall last month since May 2009, a survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors indicated.
British economic activity slowed sharply in the third quarter, the British Chambers of Commerce said, reiterating its call for the Bank of England to inject more stimulus to protect the recovery from budget spending cuts.
Investors were also waiting for UK September CPI data, and UK August trade balance figures.
Global drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis AG and US-based Johnson & Johnson have submitted concrete bids to acquire majority stake in the Indian unlisted firm Paras Pharmaceuticals, the Business Standard reported.
There will be results today from Punch Taverns and N Brown Group.
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