London pre-open: Stocks set for flat start

Stocks in London looked set for a flat start to trading on Thursday morning.

As of 0744 BST, FSTE 100 futures were slipping 9.0 points to 7,5050.50.

Financial markets' attention was expected to be on a preliminary reading for German consumer prices in June due out at 1300 BST.

It would be preceded throughout the morning by data for the country's main regions.

As Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK put it: "There is the hope that upcoming data could prompt a softening of [central banks'] hawkish [messaging] starting today with the latest June inflation numbers from Germany."

On home shores, at 0930 BST, the Bank of England will release figures for net consumer credit and mortgage lending for the month of May.

At 0830 BST the Riksbank was expected to announce a 25 basis point hike in interest rates to 3.75%.

That would be followed at 1000 BST by the results of the European Commission's surveys on industrial and economic confidence in th euro area covering the month of June.

Stateside meanwhile, the key release of the session would be the Department of Labor's weekly unemployment claims figures at 1330 BST.

Companies' latest updates please

B&M European Value Retail reported a 13.5% rise in group first quarter revenue, in line with expectations, as consumers sought lower prices amid the cost of living crisis. Like-for-like sales in the UK were up 9.2% as both grocery and general merchandise categories performed “very well, driven by consistently strong and positive LFL transaction numbers”, the company said in a trading statement on Thursday.

UK insurer Direct Line said rectifying unfair motor claim payments over a five-year period to 2022 would not have a "material financial impact" on this year's results. The company was on Wednesday ordered by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority to carry out a review of total losses where vehicles had been written off after it admitted it had underpaid some car and van insurance customers.