Wednesday preview: Global PMIs, Berkeley Group in focus

Those Purchasing Managers Indices are expected to show that manufacturing sector activity cooled a little bit in the US, euro area and UK in June.

Services activity in the UK and euro area on the other hand is expected to have picked up further, especially in the latter.

First out will be the euro area PMIs at 0900 BST, followed by those for the UK half an hour later and the US PMIs at 1445 BST.

Investors may also do well to monitor comments from Boston Fed boss, Eric Rosengren, who will be speaking at an event hosted by the National Association of Corporate Directors, from 1630 BST.

ECB vice president, Luis de Guindos, is also due to take to the podium at 0830 BST and will be followed by his boss at another event, at the Hertie/Delors Institute, from 1700 BST.

Further afield, rate-setters in Thailand are due to meet to decide on policy.

For Berkeley Group's full-year financials, UBS analyst Gregor Kuglitsch anticipates that the company will announce 2,750 completions for revenues of £2.04bn, profits before tax of £523m and earnings per share of 343.0p.

The luxury homebuilder's year-end net cash position was pegged at £963m and cash due on forward sales at £1.78bn.

Nevertheless, the company's comments around recent trading conditions and as regards the outlook for the 2022 fiscal year would be "key", Kuglitsch added.

And for the time being, the analyst wasn't anticipating any change to Berkeley's medium-term guidance for profits before tax of about £500m until FY2025.

"However, over time, we think a pick-up in trading conditions in London should result in more material growth in the medium term."

On that note, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK told clients that the company's share price appeared to be reflecting those concerns around still subdued activity in London.

Hewson said: "The performance of its share price appears to reflect this in that we still remain well below the 2020 pre-pandemic peaks, and have struggled to break above the 4,900p level at least three times this year alone, despite investors becoming much more optimistic about the overall outlook for 2021, with the shares being described as undervalued by the likes of JPMorgan."

Wednesday 23 June

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Fidelity Special Values

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Barloworld Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Current Account (US) (13:30)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

FINALS

Berkeley Group Holdings (The), Liontrust Asset Management, Manolete Partners

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Barloworld Ltd.

AGMS

1Spatial, 1Spatial, Angling Direct , Braime Group, Braime Group 'A'NON.V , Clontarf Energy , Dignity, Directa Plus, ECSC Group, Harbour Energy , JKX Oil & Gas, North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Oriole Resources , Pebble Beach Systems Group , Velocys plc, Vertu Motors, Woodbois Limited

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Joules Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Medica Group