London pre-open: UK stocks to track Japanese markets higher

22nd Apr 2015 07:44

UK stocks are expected to edge higher on Wednesday morning after a strong performance in Asian trading overnight.City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open just four points higher than Tuesday's close of 7,062.93. The index is continuing to move closer to tis all-time closing high of 7,096.78 reached last week.Stocks in Japan jumped over 1% on Wednesday with the Nikkei benchmark index closing above 20,000 for the first time in 15 years."Yet again there is a lack of economic data out today, however the Bank of England meeting minutes will be released as well as new housing data out of the US this afternoon," said Etoro analyst James Hughes."Of course the BoE minutes should be a non-event with no change expected in the voting," he said.Stocks to watchFull-year results from Tesco showed larger-than-expected pre-tax loss of £6.4bn - the biggest in retail history. Although the super market looked to draw positives from a £1.4bn group trading profit and like-for-like sales improving in the fourth quarter, eyes were drawn to £7bn of write-offs, total indebtedness of nearly £22bn and a pension deficit of £3.9bn.UK timber and builders merchant Travis Perkins said trading was in line with expectations in the first quarter with most of its businesses performing well against strong comparators. Group sales were up 7.2% year-on-year in the first three months of 2015, registering like-for-like (LFL) growth of 5.1%. Travis Perkins noted that comparisons with last year were tough, with the first quarter of 2014 seeing sales growth of 15.6% and LFL growth of 12.7%.BHP Billiton announced it would postpone some plans to increase an iron ore project, which some analysts said signalled the first admission by a major producer of the need to curtail excessive supply growth. Nevertheless, the company revealed record levels of iron ore and coal production for the nine months ending 31 March 2015. Western Australia Iron Ore production increased by 16% to a record 188 Mt while mettallurgical coal production rose 14% to 38Mt.