London pre-open: Stocks seen a little lower as investors eye BoE

London stocks were set for a slightly lower open on ‘Super Thursday’ as investors turned their attention to the Bank of England.

The FTSE 100 was expected to start nine points lower at 7,402

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “It’s been twelve months since the Bank of England went all “shock and awe” or wielded the monetary ‘sledgehammer’, the central bank’s chief economist Andrew Haldane’s metaphor, not mine, and since then the performance of the UK economy has outperformed expectations.

“Some would argue that it’s because of what the Bank of England did, while some would argue it would probably have happened anyway. One thing is certain is that as a result of last year’s action UK consumer credit has shot up to levels last seen in 2008 of £200bn, while inflation has been higher than it needed to be.”

The BoE rate decision is at 1200 BST, along with the minutes and the quarterly inflation report, while governor Mark Carney is due to give a speech at 1230 BST.

In corporate news, clothing retailer Next store sales continued to unravel in the second quarter of the year, though a strong online and catalogue performance allowed it to modestly narrowed sales guidance for the full year.

Retail sales fell 7.4% in the three months to 29 July, but Directory sales increased 11.4% so that Next brand sales were up 0.7% for the quarter but still down 1.2% for the first half as a whole.

Medical products and technologies company ConvaTec saw group reported revenue rise 0.3% in its first half to $831.3m, it reported on Thursday, with constant exchange rate growth sitting at 2.1% and organic growth of 1.5%.

The company said its margin improvement programme brought a 40 basis point performance benefit in the six months to 30 June, with a 150 basis point increase in adjusted gross margin to 60.3% including favourable foreign exchange movements.

EBITDA fell by 4.3% on a reported basis, however, to $216.4m, while that drop was 8.5% on an organic basis.