LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are called to open marginally lower Friday, following a mixed close on Thursday, amid a lack of UK data releases. Meanwhile, BT Group has raised its full-year EBITDA guidance following a strong third quarter.
Having spent the latter part of January in decline, UK equities are showing no signs of bucking the trend Friday, with both IG and CMC Markets calling the FTSE 100 to open slightly lower at approximately 6,530 points, down from 6,538.45 at the close Thursday.
In the only piece of UK data scheduled Friday, UK consumer confidence was seen to improve in December. After three consecutive monthly declines, Gfk's consumer confidence index rose to negative 7 in January, from negative 13 in December, its strongest reading since September 2007. Economists had expected the reading to show a more modest improvement to negative 12.
Meanwhile, German retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, provisional results just released from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Retail sales fell 2.5% in real terms from a month ago, reversing November's 0.9% rise, falling well bell the expected 0.2% increase.
On a yearly basis, retail sales slipped 2.4% in December, in contrast to the 1.1% growth posted in November and 1.9% rise expected by economists.
The euro dropped against against the pound, the yen, and the dollar in the aftermath of the release. Ahead of the London market open, the currency trades at USD1.3534, GBP0.8215, and JPY138.692.
With no further UK data scheduled to be released Friday, early focus will now turn to euro area unemployment and preliminary CPI data released at 1000 GMT.
The unemployment rate for December is expected to remain steady at 12.1%, just below its record high of 12.2%. However, "Thursday's stronger-than-expected 28,000 decline in German joblessness has tilted the risk to the downside," says Jonathan Thomas, senior economist at Lloyds Bank.
Also scheduled for 1000 GMT, economists expect annual inflation in the eurozone to edge up to 0.9% in January, from 0.8% in December, taking a step closer to the European Central Bank's target of just below 2%.
Following Thursday's US fourth quarter GDP reading of 3.2%, attention will shift to personal spending and income data for December. "Given the recent gradual slowdown in retail sales markets will be looking for improvements in personal income over personal spending in the hope that we continue to see a pickup in consumer spending in the coming months," says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
Personal income is expected to show a gain of 0.2%, with personal spending called to grow by 0.3%.
Later in the trading session, the Chicago purchasing managers index for January is expected to come in at 59.0, fractionally lower than 59.1 recorded in December.
In corporate news, blue-chip BT Group and FTSE 250-constituent Vedanta Resources have released third quarter results. BT said its pretax profit was up 6% at GBP617 million in the third quarter, with revenues up 2% to GBP4.6 billion. The group said it now expects its full-year EBITDA to come in at the upper end of its GBP6 billion to GBP6.1 billion range.
Vedanta, which has recently been relegated from the FTSE 100, reported that its third quarter EBITDA came in USD1.14 billion, up 3%. The firm also said it saw record oil and gas production of 224,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Elsewhere, FTSE 250-listed Rank Group has released its interim results, with KCOM releasing a trading statement.
By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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