Tuesday preview: Federal Reserve, BP in the spotlight

The focus on Tuesday will be on the US central bank as monetary policymakers in Washington DC start two days of deliberations.

No change in policy is expected but market participants will nevertheless be watching to see what the Federal Reserve's take is on recent developments and the effectiveness of previously announced measures.

Against that backdrop, a preliminary reading on the US trade deficit in March and for consumer confidence in April are due out.

On home shores, the sole economic report due out is the Confederation of British Industry's distributive trades survey for April, at 1100 GMT.

Across the Channel, the European Central Bank will publish the results of its quarterly bank lending survey, while in Sweden rate-setters will decide on policy, although here too no changes are anticipated.

On the corporate side of things, BP will publish its first set of quarterly results under its new chief, Bernard Looney.

UBS's Jon Rigby expects the oil major to provide "considerably more detail" regarding its plans to overcome the daunting macroeconomic landscape.

Investor focus is likely to be on its previous plans to divest roughly $15bn of assets by mid-2021, especially given the increasing likelihood that the $5.5bn sale of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp will go through in the current environment.

Not lost on investors was the fact that BP was the most heavily indebted of the majors following the acquisition of Level 48's properties from BHP in 2018.

The disposal of exploration and production assets had been a key plank of BP's plans to finance the purchases while maintaining its payout over time, together with its free cash flow.

Tuesday 28 April

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Bioventix

FINALS

Integrated Diagnostics Holdings, Keystone Law Group , STM Group

ANNUAL REPORT

Impact Healthcare Reit

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Life Settlement Assets, Life Settlement Assets, Life Settlement Assets

EGMS

Fondul Proprietatea S.A. GDR (Reg S)

AGMS

Alba Mineral Resources, Aptitude Software Group , Franchise Brands, Hammerson, Maven Income and Growth VCT 5, Pendragon, Seneca Growth Capital Vct, Weir Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Shoe Zone, XPS Pensions Group

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CRH

Q1

Bank Pekao SA GDS (Reg S)