London pre-open: Industrial production data in focus

Shares were being called to start the day little changes despite the strong performance put in overnight by Wall Street on the back of commodities, especially crude oil futures due to reports of supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria.

The Footsie was being called to start the session flat versus Tuesday's closing level of 6,156.65.

Asian stocks were little changed today, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index up by just 0.50% to 2,846.87 as of 07:35 BST.

Copper futures had a positive tone to them in early trading and front month Brent crude oil futures were rising by 0.110% to $45.57 per barrel.

To take note of, reports indicated Canadian oil sands firms were already looking to restart production gradually even while the wildfires in Alberta continue to rage.

It was set to be a relatively quiet day on the economic front on Wednesday, with the main release scheduled to be the industrial production report for March due out at 09:30 BST, followed by the NIESR's rolling three-month estimate of GDP growth in the UK due out later in the session.

"It’s the turn of the UK this morning as we get set for similar reports on manufacturing and industrial production data for March. We already know from the January and February data that manufacturing has come under pressure in recent months, with the Tata steel headlines keeping it in the forefront of the public’s thinking, while the most recent PMI data has also been weak," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Barratt seeing strong market conditions

Housebuilder Barratt Developments improved its sales rate in the 19 weeks since the start of the year and confirmed market conditions remained "strong" with "good levels" of demand for new homes.Around seven weeks from its year-end, the FTSE 100 company reported a sales rate of 0.75 net private reservations per active outlet per week, up from 0.74 last year and 0.66 in the first half of the year, with total forward sales at 8 May were up 9.7% on the prior year.

Information services group Experian grew total and organic revenue 5% at constant exchange rates in the year to 31 March, it reported on Wednesday, to $4.55bn, with total revenue from continuing activities sitting at $4.48bn. At actual exchange rates, revenue dipped 4%.The FTSE 100 firm posted EBIT from continuing activities of $1.2bn, up 5% at constant exchange rates but down 6% at actual exchange rates, with total EBIT of $1.21bn.

After cutting first-half losses as revenues rose more than expected, travel group Tui revealed plans to sell UK sailing and outdoor holidays unit Specialist Group. Revenues in six months to March 31 of €6.79bn rose 2.7% on last year and beat analyst forecasts of €6.61bn, helping to losses before interest, tax, debt and amortization shrink 16% to €236.9m.