London pre-open: Small rise predicted for FTSE ahead of rate decsions
Little change is predicted for the FTSE 100 at Thursday's opening bell, as investors pause the gains seen the previous day and await rate decisions from both the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB).
City sources predict the blue chip index will open around three points above Wednesday's close of 6,873.58.
"Financial markets are bracing themselves for possibly the most volatile two days of the month, with central banks and US jobs becoming the main driver of market movement," said Alpari market analyst Joshua Mahony.
"This shift of emphasis from largely geo-political to economic data was perfectly personified by the overnight Asian session, which opened high and closed low as hope of a Ukrainian ceasefire soon turned to the fear of uncertainty around the ECB."
He continued: "[Thursday's] emphasis will almost certainly be focused upon the ECB, who along with the BoE release their latest monetary policy decision. However, unlike the BoE there is actually some possibility of action from the ECB following consistently poor economic readings and inflation figures."
The decisions come after Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed an announcement by his Ukrainian counterpart who said his country and Russia had agreed a ceasefire. Putin said that he had in fact made a series of demands which he stipulated must be met before a ceasefire could be agreed.
Over in Australia, the country reported its first monthly increase in exports for five months.
Back in the UK, Standard Life has agreed to sell its Canadian operations for C$4bn (£2.2bn) to Manulife Financial and said it would return £1.75bn to shareholders. The two companies have also made a collaboration agreement in principle for Manulife to distribute Standard Life Investments' products via the Canadian company's network in Canada, the US and Asia.
Steve Corbett, the chief executive of Alent, the speciality chemicals and engineered materials group, has stepped down and will be replaced by Rick Ertmann, the president of the assembly materials division, as interim chief while a replacement is being found.
Balfour Beatty has agreed the sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff, its US business, to Canadian industrial group WSP Global for $1.35bn cash (£0.8bn). The FTSE 250 group said it would return up to £200m to shareholders, cut its pension fund deficit by £85m and retain the rest.
NR