London pre-open: Stocks seen a little higher as attention turns to Fed

London stocks are expected to open a touch higher on Wednesday as investors look to the Federal Reserve’s rate announcement later in the day.

The FTSE 100 is seen starting seven points higher than Tuesday’s close at 5,918.

“While no one is expecting a change in rates the Fed statement is likely to be scrutinised very closely for any clues as to whether Fed officials have been rattled by the enormous amounts of volatility seen so far this year, particularly given the enormous gains seen in the US dollar against commodities in general, as well as a host of commodity currencies, in the last month,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

On the data front, UK BBA loans for house purchase data is at 0930 GMT. In the US, new home sales are at 1500 GMT while the FOMC rate announcement is due at 1900 GMT.

Rio agrees to sell thermal coal project

Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its Mount Pleasant thermal coal project in Australia for an initial $83m rising to $224m (£156m) plus future royalties.

With the recently announced binding agreement for the sale of Rio Tinto's interest in the neighbouring Bengalla coal Joint Venture, this amounts to US$830 million of agreed sales.

Sage’s first quarter revenues are up, driven by strong software subscription revenue.

The FTSE 100 company saw group organic revenue for the three months to 31 December rise 6.6%.

Organic recurring revenue grew by 10.4%, with a 35.7% rise in software subscription revenue.

However software and software related services revenue dropped by 5.3%, reflecting the move to subscription services.

The company said it remains on track to deliver at least 6% organic revenue growth and 27% operating margin for the full year.

Difficult market conditions were making for a tough start to the year for Aberdeen Asset Management on Wednesday, with its net flows remaining in the red.

The FTSE 100 firm did increase its assets under management in the three months to 31 December 2015, from £283.7bn in the quarter to 30 September to £290.6bn.

Its net outflows were down, from £12.7bn to £9.1bn. Net inflows were also down, from £22.2bn to £20bn, with the firm blaming withdrawals by sovereign wealth funds for the disparity between the inflows and outflows.

RBS announced a large clean-up in the fourth quarter, including £500m of PPI provisions, $2.2bn for US residential mortgage-backed securities probe, and £4.2bn into its pension fund.

CEO Ross McEwan said: "I am determined to put the issues of the past behind us and make sure RBS is a stronger, safer bank. We will now continue to move further and faster in 2016 to clean-up the bank and improve our core businesses."