London pre-open: Little change ahead of quiet session

4th Jul 2014 07:44

UK-listed companies are expected to edge slightly lower at the opening bell following yesterday's data-heavy session and ahead of a much quieter day today. The session will see little in the way of either company or economic news, compounded by the absence of US trading to mark the Fourth of July celebrations. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around four points lower than yesterday's close of 6,865.21."It's been an extremely lively week so far in the financial markets, capped off yesterday with a fantastic jobs report from the US that completely overshadowed Mario Draghi's European Central Bank press conference," Alpari UK Market Analyst Craig Erlam said."Unfortunately, the busy schedule this week is unlikely to extend to today, as a bank holiday in the US combined with a lack of economic data or events elsewhere is going to result in lower trading volumes and a lack of catalysts for the markets." Today's data will include German factory orders, which are predicted to register a 0.8% decline for May, having jumped 3.1% the previous month. Also on the cards are a report from Markit on the health of the Eurozone retail sector and UK new car registrations figures.In this morning's company news, budget airline easyJet posted a 10.1% jump in its June passenger numbers, which leapt from 5.5m to 6.1m year-on-year. On a rolling basis, the 12 months to the end of June saw a 5.4% increase from 60.2m to 63.4m. The load factor, which measures how full the planes are, was up 0.8 percentage points to 90.1% on a 12-month rolling basis, and 2.1 percentage points to 92% year-on-year. Troubled support services group Serco has lost its contract to run the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London, which will end in December this year. The DLR franchise was was worth about £90m in revenue to Serco in 2013, or 2% of the group's overall revenues.Bookmaker William Hill has confirmed rumours that its Operations Direction, James Henderson, will take over as Group Chief Executive (CEO) from August 1st. Henderson, who has been with the group for 29 years, has been appointed as CEO Designate with immediate effect. NR