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LONDON (Alliance News) - London shares are set to open higher Tuesday, with the focus remaining on Greek debt and on inflation numbers due from the UK and the eurozone in focus.
Meanwhile Vodafone Group has reported earnings and revenue ahead of expectations.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 15 points higher at 6,983.0. The index closed up 0.1% at 6,968.87 Monday.
Vodafone posted earnings and revenue ahead of expectations for its recently ended financial year, and delivered a return to organic growth in its fourth quarter as it saw "increasing signs of stabilisation" in many of its European markets.
For the year to end-March Vodafone reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP11.92 billion, up from GBP11.08 billion a year before, and beating analyst expectations of GBP11.87 billion. This was on group revenue of GBP42.22 billion, increased from GBP38.35 billion a year before, and ahead of analyst expectations of GBP41.89 billion.
The integration of its acquisitions of Kabel Deutschland and Grupo Corporative Ono SA are on track, Vodafone said, with synergies in line with its expectations. Vodafone proposed a final dividend of 7.62 pence per share, taking its total dividend for the year to 11.22 pence, up from 11.0 pence a year before.
Greece has said it wants to reach a loan deal with its international creditors by the end of this month, BBC reported Monday afternoon, citing government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis.
"A deal is required immediately; this is why we are talking about the end of May, to resolve these critical liquidity issues," Sakellaridis said.
Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam says negotiations don?t appear to have progressed any further and despite being only two weeks from default, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is standing by his red lines.
"Pension and labour market reforms are the key sticking points although the bizarre decision to rehire around 4,000 public sector staff against the wishes of its creditors doesn?t really help matters either," says the analyst.
The euro is lower against the dollar Tuesday morning at USD1.1285.
The latest UK inflation data for April is expected to remain at 0%, unchanged from March, "though it wouldn?t be a surprise to see prices show an annualised fall to -0.1%, in light of last week?s inflation report from the Bank of England, and the fact that compared to a year ago, fuel and food prices are significantly lower," says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
UK retail price, producer price and consumer price indices are due at 0930 BST, while the eurozone consumer price index are due at 1000 BST.
In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 closed up 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng trades up 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite is up 2.8%.
Wall Street also ended higher Monday. The DJIA closed up 0.1% at 18,298.88, having reached a new intraday high at 18,325.54, while the S&P 500 ended up 0.3% at 2,129.2, also having reached a new record high at 2,131.78. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 0.6% at 5,078.43.
Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said Monday that the Fed should keep interest rates near zero until early 2016, noting that inflation is still well below the central bank's target. The minutes of the latest Fed meeting are due on Wednesday, as well as a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
"While Mr Evans did hold open the possibility of a discussion about a rate move in the June meeting the prospect of any move on rates is pretty much non-existent, given the recent spate of weak data seen in the last few weeks," says CMC Markets' Hewson.
Also in the corporate calendar, the EU and German ZEW surveys are due at 1000 BST. In the US, the Redbook index is due at 1355 BST.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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