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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening lower on Thursday, tracking falls in Asian equity markets, as investors cautiously await the start of the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium on Friday and monitor the regulatory outlook in China.

In early company news, Irish building materials firm CRH raised its interim dividend after strong results. Luxury timepiece retailer Watches of Switzerland poached its finance head from casino operator Rank. Precious metals miner Polymetal posted strong results, boosted by appreciating gold prices.

IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 24.32 points lower at 7,125.80. The blue-chip index closed up 24.34 points, or 0.3%, at 7,150.12 Wednesday.

CRH said it delivered a good first-half performance supported by ongoing strength in the building materials firm's markets in North America and Europe.

For the six months to June 30, revenue was USD14.04 billion, up 15% from USD12.22 billion at the same time last year, and pretax profit doubled to USD1.05 billion from USD518 million.

CRH posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of USD2.0 billion, which was 25% ahead of USD1.6 billion last year. CRH said this reflected strong volume growth as well as a continued focus on price improvements and cost rationalisation, which more than offset the effects of input cost inflation.

The Dublin-based firm declared an interim dividend of 23 US cents, up 4.5% from 22 cents paid out last year.

Looking ahead, CRH said it is encouraged by the progress being made in relation to the Biden administration's plans for infrastructure spending in the US. In Europe, it expects solid construction demand in its key markets to continue against a backdrop of a strong prior year performance.

Chief Executive Officer Albert Manifold said: "I am pleased to report a good first half as the strength and resilience of our business model once again delivers superior performance for CRH. Our integrated and solutions-focused approach leaves us uniquely positioned for the changing needs of construction, while our continued strong cash generation provides us with the flexibility to invest in future growth opportunities for our business. Based on current trading conditions and the positive momentum that we see across our markets, we expect second-half group EBITDA to be ahead of a record prior year."

Watches of Switzerland Group said it has hired William Floydd as its new chief financial officer, succeeding Anders Romberg who is set to retire after seven years in the role.

Floydd joins Watches of Switzerland from fellow FTSE 250 constituent Rank Group, where he has held the CFO post since November 2018.

Watches of Switzerland said Floydd's start date will be announced, and Romberg will remain with the company as a director and CFO until then and will leave following a handover period.

Rank Group, noting the announcement, said it expects Floydd to leave Rank at the end of 2021 and it will shortly begin a search for his successor.

Polymetal International said it delivered a strong financial performance in the first half of 2021 on the back of favourable commodity prices.

For the six months to June 30, revenue was USD1.27 billion, up 12% from USD1.14 billion last year. Pretax profit was USD521 million, rising 11% from USD470 million.

Polymetal said its average realised gold and silver prices tracked market dynamics and increased by 8% and 59%, respectively, during the period.

Looking ahead, Polymetal said it is on track to meet its 2021 production guidance of 1.5 million ounces of gold equivalent.

Further, the company maintained its 2021 cost guidance. Total cash cost will be in a range of USD700 to USD750 per gold equivalent ounce. All-in sustaining costs will be USD925 to USD975 per gold equivalent ounce. This guidance is contingent on the Russian ruble-dollar and Kazakhstani tenge-dollar exchange rates, which have a significant effect on the miner's local-currency denominated operating costs, it noted.

Gold was trading at USD1,784.50 an ounce early Thursday in London, marginally down from USD1,786.95 late Wednesday.

Polymetal declared an interim dividend of USD0.45 per share, up from USD0.40 paid out last year.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 0.1% on Thursday. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 1.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.5%.

In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2%, S&P 500 up 0.2% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%.

Markets are bracing themselves for Friday, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to make a speech in which he could signal changes to the US central bank's easy money policies, which have fuelled strong equity gains over the past year and a half.

The Fed is widely expected to begin easing back on its vast bond-buying programme by the end of the year, though the spread of the Delta variant and its impact on growth has some observers and even hawkish Fed members rethinking the wisdom of doing so.

Investors are also keeping a keen eye on China after it spooked world markets in recent weeks with a wave of regulations aimed at winding in private firms - particularly in the tech sector - it considered to have become too powerful and posed security risks.

"As we look towards today's European open, we look set for a slightly softer start with Asia markets seeing a slightly softer feel to the trading day with Chinese stocks in particular slipping back. It's an important day for US economic data, both current and rear-view mirror, especially so given the start of this year's Jackson Hole symposium," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

US GDP and initial jobless claims are due at 1330 BST.

The pound was quoted at USD1.3745 early Thursday, up from USD1.3726 at the London equities close Wednesday. The euro stood at USD1.1765, up from USD1.1754. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.95, higher against JPY109.67.

Brent oil was quoted at USD72.07 a barrel, rising from USD71.61 late Wednesday.

Thursday's economic calendar in Europe sees the European Central Bank policy meeting minutes at 1230 BST.

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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