London pre-open: Markets seen higher with central banks in focus

17th Jul 2013 07:41

Stocks are expected to make small gains on Wednesday morning with both the Bank of England (BoE) and Federal Reserve in focus.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open up around 10 points from yesterday's close of 6,556.The minutes of the latest BoE policy meeting are due out this morning with investors waiting to hear what Mark Carney had to say at his first meeting as Governor.Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that markets will be looking for "whether [Carney] tried to pursued the other policy makers to increase the asset purchase facility, or at the very least offer some forward guidance".US stocks finished lower last night, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both pulling back from record closing highs on Monday, as markets looked ahead of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress on Wednesday and Thursday.Sentiment was also dampened by Esther George, the head of the Kansas City Fed, who told Fox Business Network that now is the time to taper quantitative easing as the economic recovery gains momentum.Stocks to watch Engineering company Smiths Group said its headline operating profit for the full-year was likely to be £15m below current expectations, reflecting contractual issues in its Detection unit. Smiths Detection's headline operating margin has been affected by contract mix and the initial under-recovery of overheads at new manufacturing sites, according to a trading update on Wednesday. FirstGroup said trading in the second quarter was in line with management expectations but warned shareholders there was still a lot to do to restore the company to strength. Ahead of its annual general meeting on July 17th, the transport group said the recovery programmes at its First Student and UK Bus arms were on track.Electronics and maintenance products supplier Electrocomponents said first quarter underlying group sales inched higher and while market conditions remain subdued, it expects to make progress towards medium-term performance goals.BC