Wednesday preview: ECB speakers, Tesco in the spotlight

Financial markets' focus in the middle of the week will shift to the other side of the Channel, where a raft of European Central Bank officials are due to deliver speeches, including its boss, Christine Lagarde.

First off will be ECB vice-President, Luis de Guindos, who is due to speak before the European Parliament's economic committee.

He will be followed at 1245 GMT, at the same venue, by the ECB's Leon Panetta.

But the main risk event of the session will be Lagarde's question and answer session during the Reuters Newsmaker event scheduled for 1500 GMT.

They will be followed after the close of trading in London, at 1800 GMT, by Isabel Schnabel, who will participate in a webinar.

Stateside meanwhile, the US Department of Labor is scheduled to publish import price data covering the month of March at 0830 GMT.

No major economic releases are scheduled in the UK.

For Tesco's full-year results, UBS analyst, Sreedhar Mahamkali, is forecasting retail operating profits of £2,511m.

Adjusting for £535m of Business rates, Mahamkali had pegged profits at £1,976m (consensus: £1,914m).

Tesco Bank meanwhile was pegged to register an operating loss of £200m (consensus: £189m).

According to the analyst, focus would be on the grocer's guidance but Tesco management usually did not provide much.

However, some qualitative commentary might be forthcoming.

"As we have been arguing that the TSCO investment thesis has changed to generating and returning [free cash flow] to investors following the Asia capital return, we will also look for any updates on that."

Wednesday 14 April

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Oxford Instruments

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Assura , Yamana Gold Inc. NPV (CDI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Import and Export Price Indices (US) (13:30)

Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FINALS

Destiny Pharma , GYG, Tesco, The Mission Group

AGMS

Smith & Nephew

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Audioboom Group, Robert Walters