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London pre-open: Stocks to edge higher as earnings roll in; ECB eyed
(WebFG News) - London stocks were set for a positive open on Thursday following a late rally on Wall Street, as investors turn their attention to a slew of earnings from the likes of Barclays and Shell, ahead of the latest policy announcement from the European Central Bank.
The FTSE 100 was called six points higher at 7,385.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "US markets finally managed to find a bid after five days of losses, with the S&P500 finding support at its 200 day moving average to finish the day higher, which in turn should translate into a modestly positive open here in Europe this morning."
On the data front, BBA mortgage approvals for March are at 0930 BST, while the CBI distributive trades survey for April is at 1100 BST.
The ECB rate decision is at 1245 BST, while the press conference is at 1330 BST, with no change to policy expected.
"Draghi's job will be to keep the press conference low key, balance out the risks and focus on the June meeting, where we could get greater clarity on the timing of when the asset purchase program might finally end," said Hewson.
In corporate news, Barclays said it intended to return more capital to shareholders after underlying profit crept up 1% in the first quarter. Pre-tax profit for the three months to the end of March, excluding litigation and conduct items, rose to £1.73bn from £1.71bn a year earlier.
Revenue fell 8% to £5.36bn. Barclays swung to a reported pre-tax loss of £236m from a profit of £1.68bn as it paid out £1.96bn in litigation and conduct charges.
Royal Dutch Shell reported a strong rise in first-quarter income thanks to higher oil and gas prices, and growth from its gas and upstream businesses.
However, while it declared another interim cash dividend of $0.47, chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said less favourable refining market conditions and lower contributions from trading impacted the earnings of the downstream business.
Taylor Wimpey said demand for new housing has continued to be good through early 2018 and that it remains on track to meet its expectations for the year, although it sales rate and order book declined.
In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting in London later, the housebuilder said average private sales for the year to date were 0.85 per outlet per week, down from 0.93 the year before but in line with its expectations. Meanwhile, cancellation rates remained low at 13% versus 10%.
As at 22 April, the total forward order book value was around £2.16bn compared with £2.2bn in 2017, representing 9.050 homes versus 9,219, excluding legal completions to date.