Date: Wednesday 28 Jan 2015
LONDON (ShareCast) - A strong showing by US tech giant Apple and internet titan Yahoo after the closing bell on Wall Street is expected to filter into a positive open in London on Wednesday.
City sources expect the FTSE 100 to open 50 points higher than Tuesday's close of 6,811.61.
Apple's shares jumped after the close after the smartphone and tablet group reported a massive 30% year-on-year increase in quarterly sales to $74.6bn. It also posted a record quarterly net profit of $18bn.
Meanwhile, results from Yahoo were also welcomed by investors in after-hours trade, along with the announcement that it will spin-off its $40bn stake in Chinese ecommerce firm Alibaba.
As for Wednesday's session, with little economic data on tap the focus will be on the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting at 19:00 with investors waiting for hints about when the US central bank will begin to hike interest rates.
Stocks to watch
Mexican precious metals group Fresnillo beat forecasts with its silver and gold production in 2014 and said it expects to grow output this year. Silver output totalled 45m ounces (oz) last year, up 4.9% on 2013 and ahead of its 43m oz guidance. Gold production fell 2.4% to 595,920 oz reflecting the stoppage of operations at Soledad-Dipoles, but came in slightly ahead of its revised target of 590,000 oz.
Third quarter sales accelerated at Johnson Matthey but the chemicals group's underlying profits growth slowed due to continuing issues with Anglo American Platinum. The FTSE 100 group, which said full year results remained in line with expectations, said the £10m of losses in commission income from Anglo American Platinum prevented underlying profit before tax from growing at double digit rates.
Business management software group Sage said it made a "solid start" to the new financial year and remains on track to hit its growth targets. The company, which provides software for things like accounting, payroll and payments, reported a 5.3% increase in group organic revenues in the first quarter ended 31 December 2014.
In accepting the final determination from the water industry regulator, Severn Trent has cut its dividend for next financial year but plans a £100m share buy-back programme to reduce its gearing ratio. The firm also promised on Wednesday that its water bills will "fall in real terms over the next five years, by which time they will be around £60 below the industry average".
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