Hunt raises alarm over bid for Royal Mail as 'Czech Sphinx' billionaire plots fresh swoop after his initial £3.2bn offer was rejected
How LVMH is going for gold at Paris Olympics: Luxury giant to dress Team France, design medals and supply the champagne
G7 fights to find cash for Ukraine as Russia's fast-growing economy defies international sanctions - ALEX BRUMMER
CRANE ON THE CASE: I ordered £90 trainers from Asics to run the London Marathon in… but they never turned up
You may remember me as the 'disgraced fund manager': Neil Woodford is back as a finfluencer with a blog to challenge 'consensus thinking'
Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey forecasts another big drop in inflation - boosting interest rate cut hopes
I want to let my flat on Airbnb while I go travelling: Will this breach my lease, mortgage and home insurance - and do I need to tell them?
Co-op Bank set to return to mutual ownership as it agrees possible £780m takeover by Coventry Building Society
MARKET REPORT: Airlines soar as Easyjet eyes a record summer despite taking a £40m hit from conflict in the Middle East
Two female BP executives to leave in first reshuffle since former chief exec Bernard Looney stepped down
Wall Street pins hopes on Netflix with streaming service gaining another 5m subscribers in the first three months of the year
Estate agency Foxtons hails best under-offer homes pipeline since Brexit, as property prices continue to rise
'I'm neither hero nor villain', insists disgraced fund star Neil Woodford as he launches a new blog
Troubled Hipgnosis agrees £1.1bn takeover after shareholder revolt, spat with founder and valuation write down
Coin minting could become another lost art in Britain, warns LEE BOYCE, as Royal Mint axes overseas currency arm, citing 'decline in global cash use'
Annual car insurance bill rockets to almost £1,000, fuelling fears premiums are such a 'rip off' drivers avoid claiming
Is the child benefit state pension trap claiming MORE victims? Claims slump as families are forced to wait until 2026 for a 'sticking plaster' fix
Will your bank or building society let you open more than one cash Isa? We reveal the giants ignoring new rules
Best inflation-beating savings rates: Savers can now beat CPI of 3.2% by a fair margin - here's the top deals
What inflation falling means for you: CPI falls to 3.2% - when will it reach Bank of England's 2% target?
You could miss out on the dream of retiring to Spain - unless you follow these tips - as Madrid scraps its 'golden visa'
Virgin Media tops list of most-complained about phone and broadband firms to Ofcom
Millions of older people live in fear of scams: Huge number now worry about answering the phone or front door
St James's Place paid £213K to HMRC for my inheritance tax bill - but now it's gone missing: SALLY SORTS IT

FTSE preview: Shares to rise ahead of rates

By Reuters
Updated: 03:14 EDT, 5 May 2011

View
comments

The FTSE 100 is expected to rise today, rallying after sharp falls in the previous session, with investors awaiting interest rate decisions in Britain and mainland Europe.

A dealer monitors her screens on the trading floor of IG Index in London

Market watcher: Shares should rally today.

The UK blue chip index closed down 98.81 points, or 1.6% on Wednesday at 5,984.07, weighed on by a weaker commodities sector after disappointing US data impacted the demand outlook and knocked investor's risk appetite.

US blue chips shed 0.6% on Wednesday, but ended above session lows, with Asian stocks outside of Japan - which remained shut for a the Golden Week public holidays - modestly lower on Thursday.

A weak outlook for Britain's economy means the Bank of England is expected to keep UK interest rates at a record low of 0.5%, held since March 2009.

The British government looks set to miss its goal to balance the budget by 2015 because the economy will post only sluggish growth as consumers tighten their belts, a leading economic think tank, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research said on Thursday.

The European Central Bank will also unveil its latest interest rate decision on Thursday, although after April's quarter-point rate hike to 1.25% no further change is expected for the time being.

Ahead of the BoE decision, the Markit/CIPS UK April PMI services report will provide another snapshot of the British economy.

Across the Atlantic, first-quarter US productivity and unit labour costs data will be released, together with the latest weekly jobless claims, another pointer towards Friday's key April US April jobs report.

Rio Tinto expects global markets to remain fragile in the near term and sees itself in a strong position to weather any turbulence, its chairman Jan du Plessis said at the group's Australian annual meeting on Thursday.

There will be updates today from Lloyds Banking Group, WM Morrison, Diageo, Vedanta Resources, Randgold Resources, Smith & Nephew, Schroders, Amec, Carphone Warehouse, and Go-Ahead.

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.