LONDON MARKET EARLY CALL: Stocks Seen Up Ahead Of UK Earnings Reports

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are set to open higher Wednesday, ahead of another day in UK company updates, with results from Sky, Barclays, Capita and Taylor Wimpey due in the morning, among others.

Also in the corporate calendar, St James's Place and British American Tobacco publish half-year results. Antofagasta issues a second-quarter production report, while Compass Group and Brewin Dolphin release interim management statements.

GlaxoSmithKline releases its second-quarter results at 1200 BST.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 22 points higher at 6,577.70. The index closed up 0.8% at 6,555.28, taking back about half of Monday's losses.

Later in the day, attention will shift to the US Federal Open Market Committee two-day meeting, with its interest rate announcement due at 1900 BST.

The Fed is widely expected to leave US interest rates unchanged at the meeting. However, investors will pay attention to the accompanying monetary policy statement, after a recent hawkish speech and Congressional testimony by Fed Chair Janet Yellen intensified expectations that the bank would hike rates later this year.

"No immediate policy move is expected. However, with recent comments from Fed Chair Yellen seemingly increasing the odds of a September hike, investors will be looking for a clearer signal on the timing," writes Lloyds Bank. "There is no press conference, nor will the committee update its forecasts, and so the only immediate clues will be in the post-meeting press statement."

Wall Street ended higher Tuesday. The DJIA closed up 1.1%, the S&P 500 ended up 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite finished up 1.0%.

In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 trades down 0.2%. In China, the Hang Seng is down 0.2%, while the Shanghai Composite is down 0.4%.

Alongside the Fed interest rate decision, in the economic calendar is the German Gfk consumer confidence survey due at 0700 BST, while UK consumer credit and mortgage approvals data are due at 0930 BST. In the US, pending home sales are due at 1500 BST, while EIA Crude Oil stocks are at 1530 BST.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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