FTSE 100 preview: Index to open lower ahead of Easter holiday

The FTSE 100 looks set to start the last trading day ahead of the long Easter weekend in negative territory, following downbeat leads from the US and Asia. Investors, however, have a lot to look out for today, both on the corporate and on the macroeconomic front.

FTSE 100 seen lower

IG’s opening calls suggest that the Footsie will start trading 0.25 percent lower at 7,452 points. The blue-chip index is likely to take cues from the US where markets were dragged down by a fall in healthcare stocks. Asian shares meanwhile have tracked the US lower this morning, despite steady growth data out of China.

“We’re in this kind of hiatus in the global economy,” said Chris Weston, head of research at foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne, as quoted by Reuters. “People are starting to believe that we’re going to see better times in the second quarter and probably into the third quarter as well, and that perhaps the first quarter has been that trough.”

In the UK, the Footsie closed little changed yesterday, adding 1.40 points to end trading 0.02 percent higher at 7,471.32.

Thursday’s releases

Today’s macroeconomic releases include the April flash purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) for France, Germany and the eurozone, due out between 08:15 BST and 09:00 BST. UK retail sales data for March will be announced at 09:30 BST and IG reports that sales are expected to have climbed 3.3 percent year-on-year. In the US, the nation’s retail sales for March are due out at 13:30 BST, to be followed by the flash April manufacturing and services PMIs at 14:45 BST.

Today’s corporate releases include updates by Unilever (LON:ULVR), Ashtead (LON:AHT) and Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO). Blue-chips, whose shares will be trading without the attraction of their latest dividend in today’s session, include Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB) and BAE Systems (LON:BA). Reuters’ calculations suggest that ex-divs will knock 4.2 points off the Footsie.