LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are set to open flat Tuesday, with Greek debt negotiations again the centre of attention, while UK investors also will look out for inflation data due at 0930 BST.
Greece's prime minister Monday urged the country's creditors to get "realistic", a day after weekend negotiations failed to bridge major differences, setting the stage for eurozone finance ministers to make a final push to reach a deal to avert a default.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused the institutions involved in the country's bailout negotiations of "political expediency" regarding their insistence on pension cuts. He said: "We do not have the right to bury European democracy at the place where it was born."
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank joined Germany on Monday in insisting that the onus to resolve the Greek debt crisis now rests with Athens, as fears that Greece could eventually crash out of the eurozone triggered a new sell-off in equity markets.
"While all actors will now need to go the extra mile, the ball lies squarely in the camp of the Greek government to take the necessary steps," ECB President Mario Draghi told a hearing of the European Parliament in Brussels.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 1 point higher at 6,711.0 points. The index closed Monday down 1.1% at 6,710.52 points.
Outside Greece, "UK inflation figures are expected to show that the foray into negative territory last month was temporary, resulting in part from volatility in airfares because of the shift in the timing of Easter relative to last year," says Lloyds Bank in a report.
"As such, we look for annual CPI inflation to rise from -0.1% to 0.1% in May as this effect unwinds, helped also by indications that supermarket discounting has not intensified and higher fuel forecourt prices. In fact, we believe inflation will trend higher over the next few months and could be just above 1% by the end of the year, with further rises in store in 2016," says Lloyds.
In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 trades down 0.5%, and the Hang Seng trades down 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite is trading down 2.2%.
Wall Street ended lower Tuesday. The DJIA closed down 0.6%, the S&P 500 ended down 0.5%% and the Nasdaq Composite finished down 0.4%.
In the corporate calendar Tuesday, Whitbread issues a first quarter trading statement, Ashtead Group releases full year results, and Crest Nicholson Holdings publishes half year results. Record, Consort Medical, DJI Holdings and Trifast publish full-year results. Servoca, Pressure Technologies release half-year results, while Accsys Technologies issues a trading update.
In the economic calendar, the German consumer price index is due at 0700 BST. UK retail price index and producer price indexes are due at 0930 BST. The German ZEW survey of economic sentiment is due at 1000 BST. In the US, housing starts data are due at 1330 BST, while the Redbook index is due at 1355 BST.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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