Tuesday preview: Parliamentary debate on Withdrawal Agreement, Ferguson in focus
The spotlight on Tuesday will be on the first of five parliamentary debates on the Prime Minister's Withdrawal Agreement.
In parallel, Bank of England Mark Carney is due to testify before the Treasury Select Committee.
No major economic releases are scheduled in the US or Eurozone.
Ferguson is the only FTSE 350 outfit that is scheduled to update investors.
UBS analyst Gregor Kuglitsch is expecting the specialist distributor of plumbing and heating products to unveil a 7.0% increase in organic sales for the first quarter of 2019, which would mark a modest slowdown from the 8.1% pace observed over the last quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Kuglitsch modeled his forecast on a mix of the latest guidance provided by management, back in October, and the experience of Ferguson's peers in the US which had reported thus far.
He pegged sales at $5.569bn for EBITA of $444m, although margins were expected to have improved from the 7.6% achieved one year ago to 8.0%.
However, the markets focus, he said, would be on the run rate of growth into the next quarter, for which he had penciled-in a further slow down to 6% at the group level and to 9% in the States.
In the background, rate-setters at Australia's monetary authority were set to meet to decide on rates.
Tuesday December 04
INTERIMS
Collagen Solutions, Consort Medical, Discoverie Group, Mind Gym, Park Group, Tekmar Group, Vianet Group, WYG
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Schlumberger Ltd.
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)
Q2
Tekmar Group
FINALS
Greencore Group, ITE Group, Ixico
ANNUAL REPORT
Greencore Group
AGMS
City Natural Resources High Yield Trust, DX (Group), Greatland Gold, London Finance & Investment Group, Ruffer Investment Company Ltd Red PTG Pref Shares
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
PMI Construction (09:30)
Q1
Ferguson