Wednesday preview: Autumn Statement ahead

All eyes would be on Chancellor Philip Hammond when he delivered the Autumn Statement on Wednesday despite a significant increase in the news-flow on both the economic and corporate fronts.

Ahead of his presentation to Parliament, Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, cautioned that the borrowing figures for October published on the previous day were "not good enough to allow for a radical redrawing of the fiscal plans".

"Tax receipts have fallen short this year, despite strong GDP growth, pointing to a big structural deficit. The pause on asset sales will be another factor pushing up projections for gilt issuance," Tombs added.

In other economic events on the agenda, Germany´s IFO institute was set to publish its business confidence index for the month of November, followed by a barrage of first-tier economic indicators in the States.

Included among the latter were figures on durable goods orders and Markit´s manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ survey, both referencing the month of November.

Earlier in the day, it was set to be a relatively busy session on the corporate front too.

Travel Group Thomas Cook was scheduled to report its finals, with analyst Wynn Ellis at Numis estimating the company would post a reduction in earnings before interest and taxes from £310m to £296m.

Ellis highlighted the importance for investors of the company´s update on bookings for the Winter 2016 and Summer 2017 holiday seasons.

Wednesday November 23

INTERIMS
CMC Markets , United Utilities Group, Vectura Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Datatec Ltd. (DI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)
GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)
House Price Index (US) (14:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)
New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

Q3
Plaza Centers NV

FINALS
Paragon Group Of Companies, Thomas Cook Group

EGMS
Sacoven

AGMS
Base Resources Ltd , Draganfly Investments Ltd., Feedback, Finsbury Food Group, Oilex Ltd., Pantheon International , Prairie Mining Limited, SCS Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Galliford Try, Henderson EuroTrust, JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust