Friday preview: China activity data, Land Securities in focus

The market spotlight at the end of the week will shift to Asia Pacific.

Overnight, the National Bureau of Statistics will publish reports covering fixed asset investments, industrial production and retail sales all covering the month of April.

At 0900 BST. Eurostat will release consumer price data for the euro area in April.

It will be followed over the course of the afternoon by speeches from multiple Fed speakers.

For Land Securities's annual results, the consensus estimate was net assets per share of 849.0p.

UBS analyst Zachary Gauge said he was looking for some guidance as to whether the firm expected valuations to hit a floor in the back half of 2024.

Gauge also believed that an update on its plans to sell £1.2bn of non-core assets was needed.

He believed that a lot would be heard around positive trends in prime Central London offices and its Shopping Centre portfolio.

However, the fact that many overrented leases had yet to expire meant the analyst was not anticipating upside surprises on reported like-for-like rental growth.

Friday 17 May

FINALS

XLMedia, Land Securities Group

AGMs

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company (CDI), Central Asia Metals, EKF Diagnostics Holdings

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

IMI, Breedon Group, Direct Line Insurance Group, Morgan Advanced Materials, Cairn Homes (CDI), Kenmare Resources (CDI), Luceco, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan US Smaller Co. Inv Tst, Drax Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

AB Dynamics, Finsbury Growth & Income Trust, Impact Healthcare Reit, Seneca Growth Capital Vct B, Barratt Developments

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Primary Health Properties, JPMorgan Japan Small Cap Growth & Income

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (EU) (10:00)