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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were set to open flat on Wednesday, ahead of UK inflation data and after a muted performance on Wall Street.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open down just 1.0 point at 7,908.44 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index rose 29.93 points, or 0.4%, at 7,909.44 on Tuesday.
According to FXStreet-cited market consensus, the annual rise in UK consumer prices in March is expected to cool slightly to 9.8% from 10.4% in February. Prices are expected to rise 0.5% from the previous month, slowing from the 1.1% rise in February.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2416 early Wednesday, slightly lower than USD1.2424 at the London equities close on Tuesday. The euro was unchanged at USD1.0964. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY134.39, up versus JPY133.96.
In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended mostly flat, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite both flat and the S&P 500 up 0.1%.
Markets in Asia on Wednesday were flat to lower. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was down 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.6%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was flat.
Gold was quoted at USD2,004.13 an ounce early Wednesday in London, lower than USD2,010.02 late on Tuesday. Brent oil was trading at USD84.52 a barrel, hardly changed from USD84.56.
In early UK company news, Just Eat Takeaway.com said it plans to repurchase up to EUR150 million worth of its own stock in order to improve earnings per share, while it said its effort to improve overall profitability is "running ahead of plan".
Just Eat said total orders in the first quarter of 2023 were down 14% from a year before to 227.8 million from 263.5 million, while gross transaction value fell by 7.7% to EUR6.67 billion from EUR7.22 billion.
Just Eat guided for GTV growth in a range of minus 4% to positive 2% for 2023 as a whole, with a weighting towards the second half. It expects to deliver positive adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of around EUR275 million, raised from previous guidance of EUR225 million.
Wednesday's economic calendar has UK consumer and producer inflation readings at 0700 BST, before consumer price index data from the eurozone at 1000 BST.
The local corporate diary has trading statements from miner Antofagasta and Liontrust Asset Management.
By Elizabeth Winter, Alliance News senior markets reporter
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