London pre-open: Ball is now in Janet Yellen´s court

Markets are expected to trade slightly higher at the start of the sesion, ahead of what is expected to be a momentous day, with the US central bank very likely embarking on its first interest rate hike in nine-and-a-half years.

The US Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision at 19:00 GMT, followed half an hour later by a press conference in which chair Janet Yellen will explain the reasonng behind the decision adopted by the Federal Open Market Committee.

Against that backdrop, the Footsie is being called to start the session about 22 points up from Tuesday´s close of 6,017.79.

In parallel, the Shanghai Stock Exchange´s Composite Index was moving higher by 0.17% to 3,516.19.

"The question of when the Fed will eventually raise interest rates has been discussed in great depth for the majority of this year and even now, while the markets are all but convinced it will happen today, people are very split on whether it should in fact happen, "

"However, the Fed is more concerned about the potential for inflation to pick up rapidly when it does start to rise and would rather manage this early with small gradual hikes, than have to tackle it head on more aggressively a year or so down the line," explained Craig Erlam, Senior Analyst at Oanda.

"Given that financial conditions are now worse than they were in September when the Fed stalled on a rate rise, the Fed is now set to hike in an environment which is less benign than it was then.

"Given the noise surrounding the Fed’s intentions today it seems unlikely that any decision would be unanimous, given the sharp declines in commodity prices seen since the last Fed meeting in October," was the opinion from Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

Rolls Royce announces management reshuffle

Rolls-Royce is splitting out its division and reshuffling its senior management team, in what it said is the first step in a “wide-ranging” restructuring programme. The FTSE 100 company said the current top-level Aerospace and Land & Sea divisional structure will end, leaving the company five key divisions reporting directly to new chief executive Warren East. The changes take effect from January 1.

FTSE 100-listed electronics and travel retailer Dixons Carphone saw like-for-like revenue rise 5% in its first half report, to £4.39bn at 31 October. Its proforma headline profit before tax was also up, 23% to £121m, with statutory profit before tax £78m from its continuing operations. In the report, Dixons Carphone said it had improved its market share across the UK and Ireland, Nordics, Greece and Spain markets.

The positive impact of acquisitions is expected to boost full year group revenues at distribution group Bunzl by 5% at constant currency rates, the company said on Wednesday. The company added it was buying three more businesses in France, Chile and Spain, taking its total acquisitions for the year to 21 with a total record spend of £320m.