LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open slightly lower Thursday, continuing to slip away from the record highs they made Tuesday, ahead of the second reading of UK GDP and following slew of pre-market company announcements.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 6.4 points lower at 6,929.0. The index closed down 0.2% at 6,935.38 Wednesday, after the index reached a new record intraday high of 6,958.89 on Tuesday, and ended at a new closing high of 6,949.63. The index fell back Wednesday amid a flurry of individual stock news, which saw Weir Group closed down 8.8% after it warned it is preparing for a "significant reduction" in revenue and operating margins in 2015.
Wall Street ended mixed Wednesday. The DJIA closed up 0.1%, the S&P 500 ended down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite closed flat.
Asian stock indices have performed well on Thursday. The Japanese Nikkei 225 closed up 1.1%, the Hang Seng trades up 0.4% and the Shanghai Composite is up 2.2%.
Capita reported early Thursday a strong increase in profit and revenue for 2014, driven by new contract wins and acquisitions, and said it had got off to an "excellent start in 2015, with new contract wins almost double the level they were this time last year.
The outsourcing company reported a pretax profit of GBP292.4 million for 2014, up from GBP215.0 million in 2013, as revenue rose to GBP4.38 billion, from GBP3.90 billion. Its closely-watched pretax profit excluding exceptional items rose 13% to GBP535.7 million, from GBP475.0 million.
Full-year results have also been reported from FTSE 100 constituents Royal Bank of Scotland Group, CRH, RSA Insurance Group, British American Tobacco, and Reed Elsevier.
From FTSE 250-listed companies, full-year results have been released from Howden Joinery Group, Ladbrokes, Interserve, National Express Group, Domino's Pizza Group, Playtech, Premier Oil, Derwent London, KAZ Minerals, Synthomer, Bodycote, Countrywide, Jupiter Fund Management, Merlin Entertainments, RPS Group and Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate
In the economic calendar Thursday, the latest German unemployment rate is due at 0855 GMT, ahead of the UK fourth quarter GDP reading at 0930 GMT. The take up of the European Central Bank's targeted long-term refinancing operation will be announced at 1015 GMT. In the afternoon, there is US consumer price index at 1330 GMT alongside US durable goods orders.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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