Market overview: UK shares slightly lower on retail sales data

1505: US home sales reached a post-recession high in July, figures released on Thursday showed. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales rose 2%, the highest rate since February 2007, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.59m, compared with expectations for a 5.43m reading. July marked the third consecutive month of gains and the increase represented a 10.3% increase year-on-year.

1500: The Philadelphia Federal Reserve index, a closely-watched indicator of business conditions, rose from 5.7 in July to 8.3 in August.

1357: Jobless claims in the US unexpectedly rose to 227,000 in the week to 15 August from 273,000 the previous week, the Labor Department revealed on Thursday. The figure missed analysts' estimates for 272,000 jobless claims last week.

1256: British lenders have doled out the highest monthly level of mortgages since the financial crisis, with an estimated £22bn of gross mortgage lending in July according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). This amount was 9% higher than June's £20.1bn, 14% higher than July last year and was the highest monthly total since July 2008.

1100: UK manufacturing order books made a surprise recovery in August but many firms are still reporting margin pressures due to the strength of the pound, according to an industrial survey released on Thursday. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the monthly total order book balance from its monthly industrial trends survey rose to -1 from -10 in July.

1050: House building starts in England are estimated to have fallen 14% in the three months to end-June 2015 compared to the previous quarter. The seasonally adjusted level of starts in the June quarter 2015 decreased by 6% on the same quarter a year earlier. Housing charity Shelter described the figures as shocking and worrying, but housing minister Brandon Lewis argued the government had "got the country building again" and was "delivering the homes that hard-working people rightly deserve", presumably pointing to rising numbers of completions. Seasonally adjusted completions rose 4% on the preceding quarter and by 22% on the same quarter last year.

1023: German producer prices fell flat in July. According to federal statistics office Destatis, factory-gate prices were unchanged from the previous month in July and declined 1.3% year-on-year, broadly in line with expectations. Excluding energy, producer prices were flat from the previous month and declined 0.3% year-on-year, Destatis said. Energy prices in the Eurozone’s largest economy declined 0.3% month-on-month and slumped 4.1% from the corresponding period in 2014.

0935: UK retail sales rose 0.4% month-on-month in July, in line with forecasts, and up on the previous month's revised 0.3% rise. On a yearly basis, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales were up 4.3%, again in line with expectations and ahead of June's 4.1% increase.

0915: Greece made a €3.2bn repayment to the European Central Bank on Thursday as it received the first tranche of cash from its third bailout. The European Stability Mechanism approved Greece’s €86bn bailout late on Wednesday and the first instalment comes to €13bn, €12bn of which will be used to pay off debt. It includes a bridge loan and the Greek government bond held by the ECB.

0910: European stocks were in the red after an hour's trading on Thursday, taking their cue from downbeat sessions in the US and Asia as investors digested the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve. Just after 0900 BST, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.3%, France’s CAC 40 was 0.2% weaker and Germany’s DAX was off 0.6%.

0900: UK stocks fell after the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting minutes sent mixed signals on the timing of an interest rate hike.The minutes of the 29 July meeting, indicated that the policymakers were still looking to have more confidence in the inflation outlook before raising rates, but saw conditions for a rate hike approaching. Kaz Minerals was the top risers, surging over 20% after swinging to an interim profit, while Regus and Tullow Oil were among the biggest faller.