FTSE preview: Sluggish start after holiday

 

The FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 7 to 12 points, according to financial bookmakers, returning in cautious fashion after the long holiday weekend following weak showings overnight on Wall Street and in Asia.

An electronic board shows share index at a bank

Quiet mood: Slow start to a short trading week

The blue-chip index closed down 3.96 points at 6,018.30 last Thursday as some mixed corporate earnings in the UK and the US persuaded investors to consolidate recent gains ahead of the long holiday weekend.

US blue chips fell on Monday, and Asian shares were weak on Tuesday, pulling back from recent three-year peaks ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting where investors will hunt for clues on when the US central bank plans to exit its ultra-easy monetary policy.

Although there are just three trading sessions this week in London, with financial markets closed on Friday for the Royal Wedding, even with virtually no corporate news scheduled for release on Tuesday, a big batch of major announcements will be shoe-horned into the following two sessions.

Lender Barclays, integrated oil giant BP, and drugs makers AstraZeneca GlaxoSmithKline, and Shire should provide the highlights among UK first-quarter earnings due on Wednesday and Thursday.

As the UK season cranks up a gear, earnings news from across the Atlantic will also continue to flow strongly, with oil firms Chevron and ExxonMobil, software giant Microsoft, and industrial equipment firm Caterpillar among those scheduled to report results.

On the macroeconomic front, April's UK CBI industrial trends report will be released, although the main domestic focus will be on the preliminary second reading for first-quarter British GDP, due on Wednesday.

US April consumer confidence numbers will be released this afternoon, but the main attention will be directed to the start of the latest Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, with a decision on US interest rates due on Wednesday.

 

Stocks to watch today include:

Lloyds banking Group: The part-nationalised lender is poised to put its Scottish Widows insurance business up for sale as part of new chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio's review of the bank, The Times reported on Monday. [

Also, Lloyds wants to create a mechanism to help restore the value of non-performing home loans with listed property company Grainger, according to people close to the talks, The Financial Times said on Tuesday.

HSBC: Europe's largest bank is to close its retail banking operation in Russia after just two years, following in the footsteps of British peer Barclays.

Barclays: The bank will be targeted during its annual meeting this week by anti-poverty campaigners accusing it of playing a leading role in driving up food prices on global commodities markets, The Guardian said on Tuesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland: Santander's takeover of 318 RBS branches is not expected to be completed until the first quarter of 2012 despite hopes the deal would be done by the end of this year, The Guardian said on Tuesday.

BPL: Serious safety lapses by oil rig owner and operator Transocean contributed to the massive blowout and spill at a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, the US Coast Guard said in a report on the 2010 disaster on Monday.

Rio Tinto: The mining giant said on Friday it would pay the government of Guinea $700m after reaching an agreement to resolve all outstanding disputes over blocks 3 and 4 of its Simandou iron ore project.

Rolls-Royce: The US Defense Department ended a contract with General Electric Co and Rolls-Royce Group on Monday for an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

AstraZeneca: US drugmaker Pozen on Monday said it and AstraZeneca had sued India's Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd in a US district court for alleged infringement of a patent related to their pain relieving drug Vimovo.

Hochschild Mining: The Latin American precious metal producer Hochschild Mining said on Monday that production had been halted at its core San Jose mine in Argentina because of industrial action by workers.

National Express: US hedge fund Elliott Advisors, the activist investor calling for a boardroom shake-up at National Express and which is the group's largest shareholder with a 17.5% stake, has warned that the bus and rail operator must protect itself against a lack of ambition or risk getting left behind strategically and financially by competitors.

HMV: Billionaire Russian businessman Alexander Mamut is closing in on a cut-price deal to buy bookseller Waterstone's from troubled retailer HMV, the Sunday Times reported. [

African Barrick Gold: The gold miner reports first-quarter results.

Shire: The drugmaker holds its annual general meeting.

Personal Group Holdings: The firm holds its annual general meeting.

XCounter: The group holds its annual general meeting.