London pre-open: Investors look out to FPC report

Equities are expected to open slightly higher, tracking the good showing by Wall Street overnight, but in what ought to be even lighter than normal trading volumes as the long weekend, and the end of the quarter, approaches. Today's calendar is rather light, although there is keen interest in this morning's statement from the bank of England's (BoE) Financial Policy Committee, following its March meeting at 09:30.The FPC will announce an aggregate figure for the needed capital raising but will not say what the requirements are for individual banks, the BBC reports. The third (and final) estimate of fourth quarter GDP and the associated balance of payments data are released, Barclays Research reminds clients. Stateside investors' attention will be on the latest pending home sales data and, even more so, on speeches from at least three Federal Reserve policy-makers. Acting as a backdrop, INSEE has just released definitive figures showing that French gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2012. Meanwhile, and in Cyprus, the island's citizens are staring down the barrel of years of capital controls, according to some maret commentary. The Italian Treasury will today auction up to €8bn in 5 and 10 year bonds. According to Interdealer broker ICAP trading conditions in the last nine months have been extremely challenging and it expects full year revenue to be 13% lower than in the previous year. As a result, the group expects pre-tax profits for the year to March 31st 2013 to be around £280m, in line with the lower end of the guidance given in February 2013. Leisure travel firm TUI Travel has maintained its full-year guidance, saying that underlying operating profits should rise by as much as a tenth this year, after a strong winter performance. While total mainstream customer numbers were down 4.0% year-on-year in the winter 2012/2013 season, sales were up 2.0% as the average selling price (ASP) rose 5.0%. Energy services giant Wood Group has received a 'significant' three-year extension to its North Sea contract with CNR International, the firm announced on Wednesday. Wood Group's PSN division (WGPSN), which provides brownfield services to the oil and gas industry, has been working on the contract since 2005 and the extension is effective immediately. AB