Friday May 16, 07:02 AM
London shares outlook - firmer, NY closes higher, British Airways in focus
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Leading shares look set to open firmer as Wall Street closed higher on Thursday with investors likely to concentrate on British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news)
as they unveil full year figures today.
Spread bettors IG Index expect the FTSE 100 index to open 8 points higher at 6,259 after closing up 35.8 points at 6,251.8.
In the US Thursday, Wall Street notched its second straight daily gain with investors assuaged by a pullback in oil prices and some better-than-expected economic data with regional manufacturing activity contracting in May at a much slower pace than in April.
The DJIA index rose 94.28 points to 12,992.66, while the S&P 500 index rose 14.91 points to 1,423.57, and the Nasdaq composite (NASDAQ: news) index rose 37.03 points to 2,533.73.
Looking at US economics Friday, the latest North American building statistics are likely to show that the number of homes on which builders broke ground in April fell to 940,000 from 947,000 the previous month.
And, todays preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment index is expected to drop slightly to 62.5 in May from 62.6 in the previous month.
Over in Asia markets were mixed, the Nikkei 225 (news) index was 32.91 points lower at 14,218.83, while the Hang Seng (news) index ended the morning up 161.80 points at 25,67.51.
Elsewhere, oil prices in Asian trade amid tight global supplies and as investors continued to buy into the commodity which has given better returns than bonds and equities.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was up 73 cents to 124.85 dollars per barrel, off its record high of 126.98 dollars a barrel on Tuesday.
London's Brent crude contract for July rose 76 cents to 123.39 dollars. The contract for June expired at the close on Thursday, settling at 122.77 dollars.
Turning to corporate news, airlines may be in the spotlight with British Airways figures expected to disappoint investors by failing to pay a dividend when it announces its full year figures today.
Meanwhile operating profits are forecast to rise by around 45 percent to 875 million pounds, some brokers think BA will want to conserve its cash as it faces rising oil costs and a potential industry downturn.
The cost of the chaotic launch of the new T5 terminal is also expected to have cost the company 16 million pounds. However, the airline should achieve its targeted operating margin of 10 percent for the full year 2008, despite the costs of T5.
In the midcaps, Ladbrokes (LSE: LAD.L - news) the betting and gaming group, will update shareholders on its performance today.
Investors will be hoping high-roller betting activity is continuing to drive performance of its online and telephone bookmaking operations.
However, broker Evolution Securities says the near-term outlook for Ladbrokes is worrying, given concerns over a slowdown in consumer spending and the spectre of regulation on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.
There are also a slew of second liners holding AGMs including Galiform (LSE: GFRM.L - news) , Petrofac (LSE: PFC.L - news) , Premier Foods (LSE: PFD.L - news) and Spectris (LSE: SXS.L - news) .
Looking at the small caps, Holidaybreak (LSE: HBR.L - news) is expected to deliver a reassuring statement when it announces its results for the six months to end-March today.
Analysts believe the European holiday specialists business is increasingly defensive in the current market.
Brewin Dolphin (LSE: BRW.L - news) believes that sales at the groups education division should be up by over 10 percent, while forward bookings for the remainder of the year should be close to 90 percent.
And, Freedom4 Communications is releasing final results.
Minnows holding AGMs include Charter, Computacenter (LSE: CCC.L - news) , Novae Group (LSE: NVA.L - news) , SMG (LSE: SMG.L - news) , Steppe Cement (LSE: STCM.L - news) , UTV Media (LSE: UTV.L - news) , Vindon Healthcare (LSE: VDN.L - news) , while an EGM is being held by
Southampton Leisure Holdings and Kofax is holding a special meeting.
Small Caps releasing trading updates include Ark Therapeutics (LSE: AKT.L - news) , Avis Europe (LSE: AVE.L - news) ,
Computacenter and Hansard Global (LSE: HSD.L - news) .
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