London pre-open: Flat start ahead of May public finance figures

A flat start is expected on the FTSE 100, although there could be a very modest gain of a point or two, following yesterday's close of 6,808.11. That follows a mixed finish in the US last night and as investors balance Wednesday's Fed statement with nerves about the situation in Iraq. According to CMC Markets UK's Michael Hewson, "trading today is likely to be cautious as we head into the weekend, given what could unfold over the weekend in Iraq [...] with the main [European] economic focus set to be on the latest UK public finance numbers for May, which are expected to deteriorate even further". "Expectations are for a number of £12bn, a big increase on April's £9.6bn, but despite this markets continue to drive the pound higher, even more so given that the Bank of England now looks even more likely to be the first central bank to increase rates, unless the Federal Reserve undergoes a similar chameleon like Carney moment in the coming months." On the corporate front, Lloyds Banking Group is to sell off a bigger stake in TSB than expected in response to "significant investor demand". Lloyds is now planning to offload 175m shares, or 35%, in the 631 branches that form TSB when conditional dealing of high street banking arm starts on Friday. It had originally intended to sell 125m shares, or 25%. What's more, the offer price for the initial public offering (IPO) will be 260p, above the mid-point of the range of 220-290p set out earlier this month.A later-than-usual start to Debenhams' summer sale meant that like-for-like sales at the high street department store took a knock in the 15 weeks to June 14th. The company announced in April that it would refocus promotional activity - implying fewer days on promotion - in an effort to deliver higher full-price sales. As such, the start of the summer sale is scheduled to begin on week 43 of its fiscal year (June 26th), compared with week 41 (June 12th) last year.FTSE 250-listed James Fisher has acquired Testconsult, a monitoring, instrumentation and testing services provider, for £8m in cash. The purchase is being made to extant the range of services provided by James Fisher's Strainstall Monitoring business, which uses strain gauges and sensors to provide structural monitoring and dynamic load testing of bridges, other structures and offshore installations. In news announced late yesterday, the Chief Executive of Barclays' wealth management division, Peter Horrell, is stepping down from the bank later this year. His resignation comes as part of an overhaul of the UK lender's wealth operation.NR