Market report: Friday preview

13 April 2012

LEADING shares are expected to open lower this morning, hit by an uninspiring performance by Wall Street last night as China's rate hike heightens global economic concerns, dealers said.

According to spread-betting firm IG Index, the FTSE 100 is expected to open around 7 points lower at 4,635 after closing at 4642.8 yesterday.

On Wall Street last night, US stocks ended little changed as profit taking after recent gains and concerns over the impact of China's first rate hike for nine years outweighed sliding oil prices and dragged stocks from their highs in late trade.

The Dow Jones closed 2.51 points higher at 10,004.54, while the Nasdaq added 5.75 points to 1,975.74.

Across Asia overnight, the Nikkei 225 index began its afternoon session 102.23 points lower at 10,750.89, while the Hang Seng was 40.46 points lower at 13,072.69 by midday.

The UK market looks like having a relatively quiet morning today, giving traders a chance to wind down after yesterday's busy session.

Third quarter new business figures from Aviva should however provide some early excitement. In a recent preview, Goldman Sachs said it expects the insurer to announce a headline insurance APE figure of £1,807m for the first nine months of 2004, a 3.5% increase from £1,745m for the same period last year.

For the third quarter, the US broker said it is forecasting £583m compared with £533m for the same period last year, although down 5% on the second quarter of this year.

Banking stocks could move higher in early deals following robust third quarter numbers from Deutsche Bank. Figures from the German banking giant came in at the top end of expectations thanks to strong trading results.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in