LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - The Footsie was being called to start the day higher by up to 1.4%, bolstered by reports of plans for further stimulus in Asia's two largest economies and possible bargain hunting.


As of 07:24 the Nikkei-225 was higher by 7.71% to 18,770.51 points, its largest one day advance since 2008.

That followed signals from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he will reduce corporation tax to below 30% from 35% at present.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index was rising by another 1.3% to reach 3,211.64, bolstered by news of new government spending plans on major construction projects.

Late yesterday, China's Ministry of Finance said it would "accelerate the implementation and improvement of proactive fiscal policy and related measures". Beijing also said it would speed up reform measures to support stable growth and promoting healthy economic development.

In the UK, data on industrial production and trade were due out at 09:30, although some investors might opt to remain on the sidelines ahead of the Bank of England's decision on interest rates tomorrow and the attendant MPC minutes.

Little in the way of economic data was scheduled for release in the euro area, except for the latest batch of Greek CPI numbers.

Stateside, the latest JOLTS job openings survey numbers were due to be published at 15:00.

Overnight, the World Bank's chief economist warned of the risk that a September Fed rate hike might set off 'panic and turmoil' in emerging markets, Deutsche Bank pointed out.

Budget airline carrier flying high

Ryanair raised its full year net profit outlook by 25% after the budget airline's traffic and profits took off in the first quarter. The Irish carrier predicted profits after tax of €1.18bn-€1.23bn for the full year after profits in the first three months of the year grew 25% to €245m, thanks to 16% traffic growth due to stronger take-up of seats.

Barratt Developments reported a 44.8% increase in full-year pre-tax profits to £565.5m, in line with guidance published by the housebuilder in July, on revenue up 19% to £3.7bn. Chief executive David Thomas said the new financial year had started "very well", with a strong forward sales position and "very good progress" being made towards our full-year 2017 targets.

Hargreaves Lansdown posted a 5% drop in operating profit for the year ended 30 June, although revenue nudged up and assets under administration rose 18%. Pre-tax profit for the period fell to £199m from £209.8m, while revenue was up at 1% at £294.2m and assets under administration rose to £55.2bn from £46.9bn.

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