London pre-open: Flat started expected on FTSE

4th Apr 2013 07:32

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up unchanged from yesterday's close of 6,420, ahead of the release of macro-economic data in the UK and Europe including purchasing managers' index (PMI) results and interest rate decisions. The UK PMI Services index for March is expected to fall to 51.5 from the previous month's 51.8 and will come a day after the PMI results for construction output. Europe's PMI Services and Composite figures for March will also be released, which are both expected to stay unchanged at 46.5. In other important economic news, the Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank (ECB) will unveil their verdicts for interest rates in the UK and Europe respectively. All of the above comes after remarks last night from the President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, John Williams, to the effect that the US central bank could begin to taper its program of asset purchases starting this next summer. Not to be lost sight of either, earlier today the Bank of Japan announced a much more aggressive than forecast easing in its monetary policy. The UK's interest rate is expected to hold steady at 0.5% while Europe will remain at 0.75%. In UK company news, consultancy, engineering and project management group AMEC has said that first-quarter trading was in line with its expectations and a strong order book has given it good visibility for 2013 and beyond. Guidance for low-to-mid single-digit underlying revenue growth (excluding procurement) this year remains unchanged.International Airlines Group (IAG) has signed a deal for 18 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner long haul aircraft. The agreement shows a sign of faith in the Dreamliners which have been grounded since January due to battery problems. The new aircraft will be used to replace some of the airline's Boeing 747-400 aircraft between 2017 and 2021.Euromoney Institutional Investor, the FTSE 250 international online information and events group, has signed a binding agreement with HSBC to acquire its Quantitative Techniques (QT) operation, which creates and maintains more than 100 equity and bond indices for HSBC's Global Markets division as well as over 60 external clients. Once the transaction has completed after a six month transition phase, HSBC has agreed to purchase index calculation services from QT for a minimum period of three years.NR