Tuesday preview: US durable goods orders, Softcat in the spotlight

Investors' focus on Tuesday will be on a raft of economic reports due out in the States.

Chief amongst those will be the U.S. Department of Commerce's report on durable goods orders for the month of February at 1230 GMT.

It will be followed at 1300 GMT by the release of home price data for January and at 1400 GMT by the Conference Board's consumer confidence index for March.

Across the Channel meanwhile, at 0700 GMT consultancy GfK will publish the results of its consumer confidence survey for Germany in April.

An estimate for fourth quarter Spanish gross domestic product will follow at 0800 GMT.

On the company side of things, IT infrastructure provider Softcat is due to update investors on the first half of its financial year.

UBS analyst Michael Briest has penciled-in a 2.7% decline in revenues to £498m.

Earnings before interest and tax meanwhile were seen edging up from £63m one year before to £65m.

Nonetheless, EBIT growth was set to be weighted towards the second half due to more difficult comparables in the front half.

Tuesday 26 March

INTERIMS

Bellway, Smiths Group, Softcat, YouGov

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Confidence (US) (14:00)

Durable Goods Orders (US) (12:30)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

House Price Index (US) (13:00)

GMS

Fondul Proprietatea S.A. GDR (Reg S)

FINALS

888 Holdings (DI), 888 Holdings (DI), AIREA, Amaroq Minerals Ltd. Npv (DI), Big Technologies, CAB Payments Holdings, CPP Group, DigitalBox, Empresaria Group, Flutter Entertainment (DI), Forterra, Genel Energy, Getbusy, Good Energy Group, Harworth Group, Inspired, Inspired, Journeo , Life Science REIT, Life Science REIT, Luceco , Michelmersh Brick Holdings, Niox Group, Petershill Partners , Real Estate Investors, Regional REIT Limited, W.A.G Payment Solutions , Wood Group (John), Xaar

ANNUAL REPORT

Getbusy

EGMS

Bankmuscat (S.A.O.G) GDR (Reg S), Riverstone Energy Limited , Tribe Technology

AGMS

Bankmuscat (S.A.O.G) GDR (Reg S), Becket Invest, LG Electronics Inc GDS (Reg S), Power Metal Resources, Titon Holdings, Wynnstay Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ocado Group