Headline shares are tipped to open ten to fifteen points higher today, according to financial websites, taking a lead from strong performances in New York and across Asian bourses. Investors will be buoyed by news that travel chaos is likely to ease as airlines resume operations. In the US last night, the Dow rose 25 points at 11,117, the Nasdaq Composite added 20 points at 2,500 and the S&P500 gained 10 points at 1,207. Gains were driven by technology stocks after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced soaring profits. In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 172.48 points at 11,073.16, while the Hang Seng ended the morning ahead 26.38 points at 21,649.76. Crude oil traded at $84.29 a barrel on Nymex.
LONDON MARKETS
A raft of economic data is scheduled for release at 9:30am today, including the most recent BoE Interest Rate Minutes, BBA Mortgage Lending Statistics and Unemployment and claimant numbers.
In the corporate diary for the day, interim results are due from Autonomy, Elan Corporation and Qatar Telecom.
Final results are scheduled from Game Group Plc (LON:GMG) and Gresham Computing (LON:GHT)
Trading statements are expected from Bunzl (LON:BNZL) Carphone Warehouse Group (LON:CPW) Hunting (LON:HTG) Senior (LON:SNR) St James's Place (LON:STJ) and Stv Group (LON:STVG).
BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Hochschild Mining Plc (LON:HOC) will provide production updates.
The following host AGMS:
- 1st Dental Laboratories (LON:FDT), Anglo Pacific Group (LON:APF), Ark Therapeutics Group (LON:AKT), Baronsmead Aim Vct (LON:BAV), Blackrock World Mining (LON:BRWM), Bunzl (LON:BNZL), Cyan, Drax Group (LON:DRX), Hunting (LON:HTG), JPMorgan US Discovery Inv Trust, London Capital Group, LSL Property Services Plc (LON:LSL), Meggitt (LON:MGGT) Oak Holdings, Premier Energy & Water Trust, Reed Elsevier (LON:REL), Svg Capital (LON:SVI), Stv Group (LON:STVG) and Tikit Group (LON:TIK).
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