Thursday preview: BoE, Persimmon in the spotlight

The focus on Thursday will be squarely on the Bank of England as the Monetary Policy Committee announces its policy decision.

Consensus is expecting the MPC to keep all its main policy settings, Bank Rate, asset purchase facility for Gilts and that for corporate bonds steady, at 0.75%, £435.0bn and £10.0bn, respectively.

And no MPC member is expected to dissent.

Nonetheless, analysts at Barclays Research expect the BoE to "materially" update its forecast so as to reflect the volatility in the data, but no change in messaging and with all policy options left open as Bank enters the usual 'no speak' period before the general election.

In the States, the latest weekly jobless claims figures are the only new data point set for release.

Also scheduled for 1805 GMT is a speech from Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan, followed by Atlanta Fed chief, Raphael Bostic, who is due to discuss monetary policy at a forum in New York.

Across the Channel meanwhile, industrial production figures referencing the month of September are expected in Germany at 0700 GMT, followed by the release of the European Central Bank's monthly economic bulletin at 0900 GMT.

Among the main corporates due to update investors today is homebuilder Persimmon.

UBS's Gregor Kuglitsch is forecasting the company will post a 5% decline in per site sales for September/Octover, versus down by 6% in August, with sites possibly also down modestly year-on-year.

"Key", Kuglitsch said, would be whether the firm could hold volume guidance, with consensus anticipating a drop of between 3.0-4.0% for over the back half of 2019.

Operating margins in the second half of 2019 meanwhile were seen down "modestly", by 50 basis points to 30.5%.

"We see less risk on margins than on volumes. We will also be looking for an update on customer satisfaction score: we note that the HBF quarterly rolling rating (to Q120) already exceeded 80% (slightly) and therefore implying a 4-Star rating run rate. We will look for additional colour on trends since then as management focuses on improving its image."

Thursday November 07

INTERIMS

3i Infrastructure, Great Eastern Energy Corp Ltd. GDR, Halfords Group, JZ Capital Partners Ltd, Renewi , Sainsbury (J), System1 Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

International Public Partnerships Ltd., Octopus AIM VCT 2

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Bloomsbury Publishing, Card Factory, Foresight Solar & Infrastructure VCT, Panther Securities, RTC Group, Whitbread

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust, JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies Trust, Supermarket Income Reit

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BP, Greencoat Renewables, IBM Corp., SME Credit Realisation Fund Limited NPV, Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Credit (US) (20:00)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Factory Orders (GER) (07:00)

Industrial Production (GER) (07:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q3

Bank of Georgia Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Octopus AIM VCT 2

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Card Factory, Catalyst Media Group, Hargreave Hale AIM VCT , Softcat

AGMS

Supermarket Income Reit

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Flutter Entertainment, Purplebricks Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Begbies Traynor Group, Redde

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Abcam, Clinigen Group, Croma Security Solutions Group, Downing Four VCT DP67 , Downing Four VCT DSO 'D' Shs, Galliford Try, Genus, Ideagen, James Halstead, JPMorgan Smaller Companies Inv Trust, London Finance & Investment Group, New Star Investment Trust, Ricardo, SCS Group , Softcat