Wednesday preview: Sterling volatility likely as three Brexit polls due

Wednesday may be quiet for company news but will ring loudly with the clamour around the following day's Brexit vote as three polls are due for release from YouGov, TNS and Opinium.

Sterling is likely to continue being volatile. Analyst Conor Campbell at Spreadex said: "the increasing proximity of the referendum, and the enduring closeness of Vote Remain and Vote Leave in the polls, means the markets could still be in for a rocky run-in before the vote on Thursday."

There are scheduled to be three Brexit polls that all are likely to have some effect on the pound. YouGov, TNS, Opinium, all online polls. Telephone polls have typically shown less support for Leave than online polls, though the latest polls from both YouGov and TNS both showed a lead for Leave.

Perhaps US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's semi-annual testimony on monetary policy to the House of Congress on Wednesday could have some effect on markets.

However, economists said her prepared comments to the Senate Banking Committee added very little to the comments Yellen made last week.

This is hardly surprising, said Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics, since the testimony is taking place before the results of Thursday’s UK EU referendum are known and before June’s payroll employment figures are released in early July.

In comany news, Debenhams is delivering a third-quarter trading update.

UBS analysts said they expect to see LFL up 1% in Q3, an acceleration from Q2 as the weather and conditions look to have improved over the quarter as seen by N Brown.

"Further details on the gross margin progression will be interesting as the market has been promotional," they added.

Independent analyst Nick Bubb noted the Debenhams share price is still only 73p, after the recent weakness.

"Hope springs eternal that the new CEO Sergio Bucher will shift the business in the right direction, after his arrival in October, but meanwhile the business is in limbo, still trying to wean itself off its addiction to discounting. And given the unhelpful impact on fashion sales of the cold weather in March/April, tomorrow’s trading update for the last 15 weeks is unlikely to look good, even after some better trading in May, with the City pencilling in -1% LFL, or worse."

Wednesday 22 June

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)
CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (00:00)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Confidence (EU) (15:00)
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)
House Price Index (US) (14:00)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FINALS
Press Corp. GDR (Reg S)

TRADING STATEMENT
Debenhams Plc

ANNUAL REPORT
Worldwide Healthcare Trust

AGMS
Cadogan Petroleum, Carador Income Fund USD Shares, Cdialogues , Defenx, DW Catalyst Fund Limited Red Shs GBP, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. GDR (Reg S), Inspiration Healthcare Group , Oxford Pharmascience Group , Press Corp. GDR (Reg S), Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings (DI), Richoux Group, Sovereign Mines of Africa, Taliesin Property Fund Limited, Third Point Offshore Investors Ltd. GBP Shares, TLA Worldwide , Ubisense Group, Venture Life Group, Wentworth Resources Ltd (DI)

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
DFS Furniture