Date: Wednesday 04 Feb 2015
LONDON (ShareCast) - Ongoing optimism surrounding Greece was set to push stock markets higher on Wednesday, with London's FTSE 100 expected to extend gains after reaching a five-month high.
City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open 18 points higher than Tuesday's close of 6,871.80.
That was the index's highest finish since 4 September 2014 when it settled at 6,878, coming within a whisker of its record closing level of 6,930 reached in December 1999.
Greece's new prime minister Alexis Tsipras is set to present his proposal for a debt swap to EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Tuesday.
Markets have more or less welcomed the plan which backed down from calling for a total debt write-off and instead proposed swapping outstanding debt for new growth-linked bonds.
It will be a busy day for economic data, with services purchasing managers' indices (PMIs) out in China, the Eurozone, UK and US, along with euro-area retail sales figures and the ADP employment report Stateside.
Stocks to watch
Half-yearly results from fund manager and savings outfit Hargreaves Lansdown showed a decent performance across the board despite a tough backdrop, with assets under administration (AuA) rising to record levels and client numbers growing steadily. AuA totalled £49.1bn by 31 December 2014, up 4.7% since the start of the financial year on 30 June 2014, as the company recorded net business inflows for the six-month period of £2.25bn.
In its first set of results since slimming down its name to Sky and absorbing its German and Italian sister companies, the satellite broadcaster delivered a strong set of interim results and cited good momentum in all its markets. With retail customer numbers up 82%, revenues rose 5% to £5.6bn for the six months to the end of December, lifting operating profit 16% to £675m and encouraging the board to hike the dividend 3% to 12.3p a share.
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