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FTSE preview: Miners to continue rally

By Reuters
Updated: 02:58 EDT, 2 December 2010

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open higher on Thursday, say financial bookmakers, extending the rebound seen in the previous session, in tandem with strong gains on Wall Street and in Asia ahead of a key European Central Bank meeting.

Market watcher: Will shares recover ground lost this week?

The UK blue chip index closed 114.23 points, or 2.1% higher on Wednesday at 5,642.50, clawing back a chunk of the sharp losses made in the past three sessions, with commodities boosted by upbeat Chinese data and banks rallying as European bank contagion concerns eased.

On Wall Street, the Dow and the S&P 500 scored their biggest gains in three months on Wednesday, boosted by efforts to resolve the EU's debt crisis, while Japan's Nikkei share average on Thursday hit a five-month high ahead of an ECB Council meeting that investors speculate could yield new measures to contain the euro zone's fiscal crisis.

Even after Ireland's bailout last weekend, investors have been losing confidence that Portugal and Spain can escape a similar fate, leading to expectations the ECB will announce backstop measures to keep cash flowing in its financial system, though it may disappoint investors by not being ready to increase bond purchases just yet.

On the domestic data front, after Wednesday's strong Market/CIPS British manufacturing PMI report, Thursday sees the release of the Market/CIPS British construction PMI report for November at 0930 GMT, with a reading of 51.0 forecast, after a 51.6 percent reading in October.

Across the Atlantic, ahead of Friday's key Novenber non-farm payrolls report, the latest US weekly jobless claims will be scrutinsed, with October US pending home sales data due.

There will be results today from Kingfisher, TUI Travel, Marston's, Britvic and OMG.

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