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LONDON (Alliance News) - London-listed equities were edging higher at midday on Wednesday, as investors prepared for Philip Hammond's first Autumn Statement as UK chancellor of the exchequer.

There has been little in the economic calendar so far this week to drive sentiment but on Wednesday the market will finally have events to sink its teeth into. The UK Treasury statement will begin at 1230 GMT, with the release of the minutes from the US Federal Reserve's last policy meeting at 1900 GMT.

Hammond is expected to unveil a bleak outlook for the UK public finances and downgrades to economic growth forecasts.

Mounting Brexit uncertainty have prompted economists to predict that Britain's fiscal watchdog will revise down UK gross domestic product for 2017 and through to 2020.

However, despite expected downgrades to growth estimates, the UK economy has been relatively resilient since the Brexit vote at the end of June. This has already caused the Bank of England to lift its forecasts for 2016 GDP after its initial cut following the referendum result.

Societe Generale believes the resilience seen in the UK economy will mean Hammond will announce less fiscal stimulus than some in the market may expect.

"The resilient economic data after the initial shock of the Brexit vote have dampened expectations of a major fiscal stimulus. We expect the boost to be limited to infrastructure spending of no more than 1% of GDP on a cumulated basis," SocGen said.

This is a view shared by Kallum Pickering, senior UK economist at Berenberg.

"With no immediate economic crisis to deal with, the new chancellor Phillip Hammond is unlikely to pander to markets' desires and announce a major fiscal stimulus," Pickering said.

However, Pickering said the Chancellor will set himself generous fiscal targets with sufficient headroom in case growth slows by more than expected.

One of the policy changes expected in the statement is an end to up-front letting agents' fees for millions of private rental sector tenants. The move would mean a ban on lucrative fees for letting agents and was causing shares in estate agents to fall ahead of the Autumn Statement.

Countrywide was down 3.5%, Foxtons Group down 7.5%, LSL Property Services down 4.6%, and Purplebricks Group down 4.6%.

The wider market remained firm, however, The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3%, or 18.53 points, at 6,838.25. The FTSE 250 was up 0.2% at 17,708.37 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 816.70.

The BATS UK 100 was 0.3% higher at 11,565.34, the BATS 250 was up 0.3% at 16,051.32 and the BATS Small Companies was up 0.8% at 10,946.73.

London was out-performing the rest of Europe. The CAC 40 index in Paris was down 0.5% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.7%.

Ahead of the open on Wall Street, futures pointed the DJIA and the S&P 500 both flat and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.1%, after their record highs on Monday and Tuesday.

On the London Stock Exchange, United Utilities Group was up 2.9% after it said its operating profit grew in the first half while its revenue edged lower, adding it remains on track to meet its expectations for the full year.

The water utility company said it made an operating profit of GBP303.6 million in the half-year to the end of September, up from the GBP278.3 million made a year before. Pretax profit was down to GBP158.4 million from GBP215.6 million, due to higher financing expenses.

United Utilities said it remains on track to meet its delivery incentive targets and said it is continuing to ramp up its investment plans.

Thomas Cook Group led the gainers in the FTSE 250, up 10%. The travel operator reported a fall in profit in its recently ended financial year, following a difficult period for tourism plagued by terrorist attacks and political instability, but resumed payment of a dividend for the first time in five years.

Thomas Cook will pay a 0.5 pence dividend for the year, which it said reflects confidence in its strategy and "the opportunity for sustainable, profitable growth". Shore Capital said the full-year results represented a "good performance" in a tough environment, and welcomed the resumed dividends payment.

CMC Markets said a slowdown in trading activity in its first half led to net revenue falling in all three of its regional segments, despite growing client numbers.

The financial derivatives trading services provider said it has seen no further drop in client trading activity and, due to "historic trends", expects trading levels to improve in the second half. However, CMC said that if client trading levels do not improve, its net operating income for its financial year ending 2017 is likely to be "moderately lower" than in the prior financial year.

The stock traded down 4.1%, the worst performer in the FTSE 250.

Brammer shares surged 69% to 165.08 pence after the industrial maintenance, repair and overhauls products distributor said it has agreed to a takeover offer from private equity group Advent International Corp valuing the company at GBP221.5 million. Advent will pay 165.00p per share a 69% premium to Brammer's closing price on Tuesday.

Brammer said a strategic review it undertook amid tough trading conditions identified a number of "material operational issues". The group said addressing these issues as a listed company "would be complex, require significant structural and behavioural changes, incur significant cash reorganisation costs and take at least three years to implement and would, therefore, carry significant execution risk and uncertainty for a public company".

Still ahead in the economic calendar aside from the Autumn Statement and Fed minutes are US initial and continuing jobless claims and durable goods at 1330 GMT. Markit US manufacturing purchasing managers' index is at 1445 GMT, while US EIA crude oil stocks are at 1530 GMT and the same for natural gas storage at 1700 GMT.

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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