Tuesday preview: Italian Parliament, Persimmon in focus

Markets' focus on Tuesday will shift to Rome, where Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is due to deliver a speech to the country's Senate, possibly ahead of a no-confidence vote against him following League leader Matteo Salvini's decision to call an end to the current coalition government with his rivals from the Five Star Movement.

Nevertheless, the possibility exists that Conte will instead tender his resignation to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who would then have to decide whether to call fresh elections or allow time for Five Star and Democratic party lawmakers to try and stitch together an alternative coalition.

Against that backdrop, and in the run-up to the Jackson Hole central banking symposium at the end of the week, traders will also be keeping an eye out for the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest policy meeting minutes.

US central bank vice chair for supervision Randal Quarles is also scheduled to deliver a speech in the afternoon, after the close of trading in London.

On home turf, the Confederation of British Industry is scheduled to release the results of its industrial trends survey for August.

The consensus forecast is for the key total orders sub-index to rise from August's reading of -34 points to -25.

Persimmon and Wood Group are among the corporates set to update investors on Tuesday.

For the former, UBS's Gregor Kuglitsch is anticipating six-month after tax profits of £509.0m.

The homebuilder's outlook for second half volumes and margins will be "key", he says.

His forecast is for volumes to rise by 2.0% but alongside a sequential decline in margins to 30.0%.

"More broadly, the key debate remains whether margins need a bigger re-set in order to improve quality and customer satisfaction scores," he added in a recent research note sent to clients.

On Wood Group, UBS's Amy Wong said that investors' focus would be on the company's plans for asset sales or any changes to its guidance for dividend policy.

Tuesday August 20

INTERIMS

Empiric Student Property , Finablr , Global Ports Holding, Kenmare Resources, Persimmon, Wood Group (John)

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Dewhurst, Dewhurst (Non-Voting)

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Merchants Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

FINALS

Scancell Holdings

AGMS

Circle Property , Gail (India) Ltd GDR (Reg S)

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)