Wednesday preview: ECB's Christine Lagarde, Lloyds in the spotlight

The market spotlight on Wednesday is likely to be on European Central Bank boss, Christine Lagarde, in light of recent weakness in the single currency.

Nonetheless, the ECB's standard line that it does not target exchange rates means some investors may be left disappointed.

Lagarde is scheduled to visit Hamburg harbour at 1130 GMT and to speak at Manager Magazin's Top 100 women in German business event at 1600 GMT.

Also due out are readings for French and German consumer confidence in April and May, respectively.

On home shores, at 1100 GMT, the Confederation for British Industry will publish the results of its Distributive Trades survey for April.

In the US meanwhile, at 1330 GMT, the Department of Commerce will release a preliminary estimate for foreign trade in March.

On the corporate side of things, investors will be digesting the latest quarterly earnings out of Lloyds.

Although the lender is in now in a "much stronger" position financially, its share price continues to languish below its levels from before the pandemic, a contradiction that Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, termed "one of life's big mysteries".

Nevertheless, Hewson conceded that the economic outlook for the UK was likely to present Lloyds with "significant challenges" for over the next 12 months.

On the other side of the Pond, Meta Platforms is due to release its first quarter numbers after the close of trading in New York.

According to Hewson, Meta appeared to be having trouble generating sales and following recent weaker-than-expected results out of media rivals Snap and Netflix, another meltdown in the company's share price was a risk.

Wednesday 27 April

INTERIMS

AB Dynamics, Go-Ahead Group, Go-Ahead Group, WH Smith

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Close Brothers Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

GMS

Mckay Securities, OMV Petrom S.A. GDR (REG S)

FINALS

1Spatial, The City Pub Group

IMSS

Lloyds Banking Group

EGMS

OMV Petrom S.A. GDR (REG S)

AGMS

Drax Group, EP Global Opportunities Trust, EP Global Opportunities Trust, Global Invacom Group Limited (DI), HUTCHMED (China) Limited, Lancashire Holdings Limited, London Stock Exchange Group, Nichols, Persimmon, Primary Health Properties, Seneca Growth Capital Vct, Tern

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Aveva Group, Drax Group, Fresnillo, Network International Holdings, Persimmon, Petropavlovsk, Reckitt Benckiser Group, WPP

Q1

GlaxoSmithKline