London pre-open: Stocks expected to pull back after strong gains

17th Jul 2014 07:51

After the strong gains made yesterday and another all-time high on Wall Street last night, UK stocks are expected to pull back slightly on Thursday morning. City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open around 17 points lower than Wednesday's close of 6,784.67 following a 1.1% jump for the index yesterday following data which showed a pick-up in economic growth in China.Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its 15th record close of the year so far, helped by an upbeat assessment of the US economy by the Federal Reserve in its latest Beige Book survey.Today, markets across Europe are expected to decline "with investors focussing back on the latest announcement of new US and EU mandated sanctions against Russia over their role in the unrest in the Ukraine, as tensions rise once again between the various governments", said Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.Economic data will also be closely watched, with the final reading of Eurozone inflation for June on tap, along with housing-market figures and jobless claims in the US.Stocks to watchBritish Sky Broadcasting, which is currently considering a giant European consolidation with acquisitions of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, has sold shares in UK rival ITV for £481m. Sky has disposed of a 6.4% stake in ITV to US-based Liberty Global, which has been active in the UK of late with the purchase of Virgin Media last year and a joint takeover with Discovery Communications of All3media in May this year.Sportswear retailer Sports Direct beat consensus estimates with a 15% jump in annual underlying operating profits as revenues grew by almost a quarter. The company also said that trading at the start of the new financial year has been "in line with management's expectations" and guidance remains unchanged as some stronger weeks have been offset by a disappointing performance by England in the World Cup.Electricity generator and retailer SSE forecast higher earnings this year but warned that it would be harder to lift them again next year. The group also said it was on track to increase its annual dividend in line with inflation.Land Securities claimed a strong start to the year, with strong leasing momentum of 385,000 square feet of deals agreed in the first quarter.BC