LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are set to open lower, as the Greek debt negotiation get underway again Thursday at the European Council meeting taking place in Brussels, after Wednesday talks proved inconclusive.
Hopes remain that a deal can still be struck, paving the way for unlocking financial aid.
The Eurogroup meeting, which was scheduled for 2000 BST Wednesday, ended in a little more than an hour as finance ministers suspended talks.
"There is no agreement yet. Work will go on and the Eurogroup will reconvene Thursday...in order to prepare for the European Council," Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a release.
CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson believes that the closer we get to the June 30 deadline, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Greece will not be repaying the International Monetary Fund its EUR1.5 billion on time.
"Yesterday?s declines in equity markets were pretty much inevitable given the euphoria of earlier in the week, after the creditors not surprisingly pushed back on the proposals, so seized upon by the markets, that were put forward by the Greek government," Hewson says. "One thing this pushback by the creditors has done is shift the focus away from the other problem of how to get the proposals passed firstly by the Greek parliament, and then by the German Bundestag, but that is likely to be a problem for another day."
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 13 points lower at 6,831.50. The index closed up 0.2% on Wednesday, outperforming major European and US indices.
Wall Street ended lower on Wednesday, with the DJIA down 1.0%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both ended down 0.7%.
In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 is reading down 0.2%. In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.5% and the Shanghai Composite is trading down 0.2%.
In the economic calendar Thursday, German GfK consumer confidence information for July is released at 0700 BST, with the UK Confederation of British Industry's distributive trades survey for June released at 1100 BST.
In the afternoon, US jobs data and personal consumption data are scheduled to be published at 1330 BST, while Markit Economics releases its US composite and services purchasing managers' index data for June at 1445 BST. US Energy Information Administration gas storage change information is due at 1530 BST, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's quarterly survey of manufacturing activity scheduled shortly after at 1600 BST.
In the corporate calendar, FTSE 250-listed John Wood Group, Go-Ahead Group and Debenhams are all scheduled to release trading updates Thursday, while DS Smith is set to publish full-year results.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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