London pre-open: Stocks seen steady ahead of BoE rate announcement

(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set for a steady open on Thursday as investors eyed the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England. The FTSE 100 was called to open unchanged at 7,445.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "European markets saw a much more buoyant tone yesterday with the news that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had left Taiwan without incident, and better than expected US economic data prompted a similarly strong session for US markets which finished the day strongly higher.

"This positive finish looks set to see a higher open for markets in Europe, with the focus on the Bank of England rate decision and the latest US weekly jobless claims.

"Today the Bank of England could make history by raising interest rates by 50bps for the first time since the Monetary Policy Committee was set up back in 1997.

"In June, the vote was a split decision, and it is quite likely that this one could be too. Then, three members of the MPC voted for 50bps, and they were Michael Saunders, Catherine Mann and Jonathan Haskel, while the rest voted for 25bps.

"This will be the very least that we can expect to see today, however there is a high chance of a more aggressive move today, now that several Federal Reserve officials have reset rate expectations after the dovish interpretation of Fed chair Jay Powell's press conference last week."

In corporate news, commodity trading and mining company Glencore posted a massive $10.3bn rise in interim core profits on the back of record prices for coal and gas.

The company said group adjusted core earnings rose 119% to $18.9bn, but said it expected more normal marketing conditions to prevail in the second half of the year.

Retailer Next said that sales in the first half had been "dominated" by "a sharp reversal" of the previous year's lockdown trends.

Next stated second-quarter full price sales were up 5% year-on-year, driven by a 0.2% increase in online sales and a 12% jump in retail sales. The FTSE 100-listed group also increased its full-year profit guidance by £10.0m to £860.0m.