LONDON MARKET COMMENT: Stocks Seen Flat; China Service Sector Expands

Wed, 06th May 2015 06:38

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open flat Wednesday, reversing earlier indications of a higher open, on the eve of the UK General Election, as China's service sector expanded at a faster rate in April than in March.

IG says futures point the FTSE 100 to open flat at 6,928.5. The index ended down 0.8% at 6,927.58 on Tuesday amid a wider European equity sell-off, as oil prices rose to their highest levels of the year due to fears of supply disruptions in Libya.

Ahead of the London open Brent oil has held onto the gains and trades at USD68.20 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate trades at USD61.31 a barrel.

Ahead of the UK General Election on Thursday, the Conservatives appear to have a narrow lead but the majority of polls still have the UK General Election too close to call 24 hours before voting is set to begin.

The latest ComRes poll for the Daily Mail and ITV News has the Tories leading by three points, having gained two points since the last phone poll conducted by the company a week ago. The Tories are on 35%, with Labour losing a point since the last poll to sit at 32%. UKIP and the Liberal Democrats gained a point apiece to sit at 14% and 9% respectively, while the Green Party lost three points to 4%.

On Wall Street Tuesday, the DJIA ended down 0.8%, the S&P 500 closed down 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended off 1.6%.

In Asia Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei remains closed for holiday. The Hang Seng trades down 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.7%.

The services sector in China expanded at an accelerated pace in April, the latest survey from HSBC showed, with a Purchasing Managers' Index score of 52.9. That's up from 52.3 in March, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust score of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. However, the reading was a touch light of consensus estimates for a rise to 53.1.

In London, Legal & General Group said its first-quarter cash generation increased, driven by growth in its stock of assets. In a statement, the group said that net cash generation was GBP326 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP301 million in the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

SuperGroup reported growth in sales for the fourth quarter of its financial year and in the full year as a whole and said it expects its underlying profit for the year to meet previous guidance. The retailer reported revenue for the 15 weeks to April 25 of GBP134.8 million, up from GBP113.8 million in the same period the year before, while revenue for the full financial year grew 12.5% to GBP484.7 million from GBP430.9 million.

In the rest of the UK corporate calendar, J Sainsbury reported full-year results, and Imperial Tobacco Group reported half-year results, as did software and services company Sage Group. Irish building materials company CRH issued an interim management statement, along with Direct Line Group, Legal & General Group, JD Wetherspoon, National Express Group and GKN. Inmarsat released first quarter results and Intu Properties issued a trading statement.

Prudential releases an interim management statement at 0915 BST, and GlaxoSmithKline reports first quarter results at 1200 BST.

In the economic calendar, there are Markit services and composite PMIs from France at 0850 BST, from Germany at 0855 BST, and from the eurozone at 0900 BST. The UK Markit services PMI is at 0930 BST. Eurozone retail sales is at 1000 BST, before US ADP employment change at 1315 BST and EIA crude oil stocks at 1530 BST.

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