Thursday preview: UK GDP, Mondi in focus
The focus on Thursday will be on a raft of UK economic data, including a reading on gross domestic product and industrial production in August.
Forestry & Paper
19,661.22
16:30 18/12/24
FTSE 100
8,233.42
11:35 06/01/25
FTSE 350
4,541.72
11:35 06/01/25
FTSE All-Share
4,498.35
11:35 06/01/25
Mondi
1,174.50p
11:35 06/01/25
Consensus is expecting UK activity to have flatlined in month-on-month terms following the previous month's bounce, but Barclays Research believes a dip in services output, alongside a downdraft in the construction, will drag GDP down by 0.1%.
Against that backdrop, traders will be closely monitoring their screens for any fresh headlines on the first of two days of high-level US-China trade talks in Washington.
Stateside meanwhile, consumer price data for September is expected to show a rise in the year-on-year rate of increase in US consumer prices from a pace of 1.7% in August to 1.9% for last month, alongside so-called core inflation running at 2.4%.
In parallel, across the Channel, the minutes of the European Central Bank's policy meeting in September may provide further colour on what appears to have been an unusually - for the ECB's standards - policy debate when the Governing Council last met.
On the corporate side of things, UBS's Mikael Doepel expects Mondi to post third quarter underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of €393.0m and guide towards "muted" demand and "some further pressure" on corrugated box and uncoated fine paper prices heading into the fourth quarter.
Regarding the stock's roughly 3% dip year-to-date and underperformance versus peers, Doepel attributed that to the higher earnings risks and valuation relative to peers.
To take note of, the paper and packaging outfit's management team had already guided towards softer prices and demand for the back half of 2019.
Thursday 10 October
INTERIMS
Brown (N.) Group, Morses Club
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Forterra, Macfarlane Group, Restaurant Group, Zotefoams
INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Andrews Sykes Group, Bodycote, Centaur Media, Centrica, Charles Taylor, Christie Group, Cobham, Curtis Banks Group, Morgan Sindall Group, Phoenix Spree Deutschland Limited Shs NPV , Puma VCT 10 , Saga , Shore Capital Group Ltd., Spectris, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Tandem Group, Ted Baker, Tesco, Weir Group
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
GlaxoSmithKline, XP Power Ltd. (DI)
QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, BMO Commercial Property Trust Limited, Fair Oaks Income Limited 2017 Shs NPV, JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust, JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies Trust, Marble Point Loan Financing Limited NPV, Marsh & Mclennan Cos Inc., Middlefield Canadian Income PCC, Primary Health Properties, Schroder Income Growth Fund
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (GER) (07:00)
Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Current Account (GER) (07:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Barratt Developments, Centaur Media, RDL Realisation
AGMS
Aberdeen Frontier Markets Investment Company
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (09:30)
Gross Domestic Product (09:30)
Index of Services (09:30)
Industrial Production (09:30)
Manufacturing Production (09:30)
RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Colefax Group, South32 Limited (DI) , United Carpets Group, UniVision Engineering Ltd.
FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Barratt Developments, Begbies Traynor Group, City of London Investment Group, Close Brothers Group, CPL Resources, Haynes Publishing Group, JPMorgan Mid Cap Inv Trust, Murgitroyd Group, Strategic Equity Capital