London pre-open: Stocks seen falling slightly as earnings glut digested

London stocks were expected to fall seven points on Thursday's open after a slightly more hawkish statement from the US Federal Reserve over night and ahead of expected stimulus from the Japanese and and UK central banks in coming few days.

Craig Erlam at Oanda said the mixed trading session in Asia overnight offered little direction for European investors, with futures currently pointing to a relatively flat open, while the Fed's opting to leave interest rates unchanged was widely expected.

"The statement itself contained some positive language that appears to have been overlooked by the market. In fact, following the release investors pushed back expectations for the next hike rather than bringing them forward," he said.

Erlam added that today’s session is likely to be dominated again by earnings releases, with a large number of companies scheduled to report on the second quarter from the US and throughout Europe.

In corporate news, Lloyds Banking Group made a slightly bigger pre-tax profit in the first half of the year and has begun the process of cutting 3,000 jobs, closing 200 branches and selling almost third of other properties to cut costs. Reaffirming its full year guidance for net interest margin and cost:income ratio, the bank posted an underlying pretax profit £4.2bn, ahead of consensus estimates of £4.06bn, and declared an interim dividend of 0.85p per share, up 13%.

Subscription broadcaster Sky posted results for the year to 30 June on Thursday morning, reporting a 7% increase in revenue to £11.965bn, with adjusted operating profit up 12% to £1.558bn. The firm said adjusted earnings per share rose 13% during the period to 63.1p, and declared its 12th consecutive year of dividend growth to 33.5p. During the year, Sky gained 808,000 customers and sold 3.3 million new products. On a statutory basis, revenue rose 20%, operating profit improved 1% to £977m and earnings per share were 39p.

Adjusted interim operating profits at energy provider Centrica fell 12% to £853m reflecting extreme warm weather in North America and the impact of low commodity prices on exploration and production and central power generation, partially offset by cost efficiency. Revenue fell 13% to £13.38bn and adjusted earnings 14% to £507m which in turn led to adjusted basic earnings per share slumping 17% to 9.8p. The interim dividend was increased to 3.6p from 3.57p.