(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening marginally higher on Thursday ahead of the Bank of England's interest rate decision at midday, as voters head to the polls across the UK for local elections.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 8.20 points higher at 7,047.50. The blue-chip index closed up 116.13 points, or 1.7%, at 7,039.30 Wednesday.
On what has been dubbed 'Super Thursday', ballots will be cast across the UK in the largest test of political opinion outside of a general election, with the future of the Labour Party and the state of the Union among the issues at play.
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon's push for a second independence referendum means the stakes are high in the Holyrood contest.
In England, as well as local council and mayoral contests, the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election will indicate what progress - if any - Labour has made in regaining votes in its former northern heartlands.
For Labour, success is expected in the form of Sadiq Khan winning a second term as mayor in London.
In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.3%, S&P 500 down 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite down 0.4%.
"The main focus is on sterling today as local and regional elections get under way across the country, with a lot of attention set to be on the Scottish vote and whether the SNP will be able to obtain a majority to claim the right to hold another independence vote," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3908 early Thursday, little changed from USD1.3910 at the London equities close Wednesday.
The BoE will announce its latest monetary policy decision, alongside the release of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting minutes and Monetary Policy Report, at midday on Thursday.
The Bank of England is set to leave its policy unchanged, but could potentially hint at tapering bond buys.
"No changes to monetary policy are expected, but we could start to see some taper talk. The recent pause in 10-year gilt yields is likely to have prompted a sigh of relief, however given the improvements that might be seen in the data in the coming months we might see some early discussions about reining back on the bond buying program in the form of modest tapering," said Hewson.
The euro was priced at USD1.2007, flat from USD1.2000. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY109.33, up from JPY109.26.
Brent oil was trading at USD69.10 a barrel, down from USD69.89 late Wednesday. Gold was quoted at USD1,790.58 an ounce, higher against USD1,781.79.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index was up 1.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.3%. Markets Tokyo and Shanghai reopened after being closed for holidays since last week. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended 0.6% lower.
China said it has suspended an economic agreement with Australia, in an apparent tit-for-tat response to Canberra's scrapping of a Belt & Road infrastructure pact and threat to undo a deal leasing Darwin Port to a Chinese company.
Relations between the two sides have collapsed into acrimony after Canberra called for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and banned telecoms giant Huawei from building Australia's 5G network.
Australia described China's decision to freeze regular bilateral trade talks as "disappointing," but insisted Canberra was still willing to talk despite ties reaching a new low.
Trade Minister Dan Tehan said the now-suspended China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue provided an "important forum" for the two countries "to work through issues", but noted no such talks had taken place since 2017.
The economic events calendar on Thursday has German factory orders at 0700 BST, UK services PMI at 0930 BST, eurozone retail sales at 1000 BST and US jobless claims at 1330 BST.
The UK corporate calendar for Thursday has trading statements from housebuilder Barratt Developments, clothing retailer Next, packaging firm Mondi and transport ticketing platform Trainline.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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