London pre-open: Stocks seen up ahead of BoE policy announcement
London stocks were set to rise at the open on Thursday following an upbeat Asian session, as investors eye the latest policy announcement from the Bank of England.
The FTSE 100 was called to open 17 points higher at 7,266.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "It is true a rate rise now would be a sharp change in policy from the last meeting in September, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world either.
"A rate increase of 0.15% to 0.25% could be argued as being entirely consistent with the recovery in the UK economy seen since the emergency measures were implemented back in March 2020, and while any decision is unlikely to be unanimous, we know of only two who would be more than likely to vote against a rise in rates, Tenreyro and Mann, given their recent comments on policy.
"One thing is certain it will probably be a split decision and likely to be decided by the odd vote, but more than anything if the UK economy can’t withstand a 0.15% rise in base rate, then we are in a very sorry state indeed."
In corporate news, BT Group reported a fall in interim profits due to higher finance costs and partially offset by a rise in adjusted core earnings.
The company said pre-tax profit fell 5% to £1bn from £1.06bn a year ago. Revenue was 3% lower at £10.3bn driven by a decline at its Enterprise and Global unit and flat Consumer division sales.
Sainsbury's stuck to its full-year guidance as the supermarket group reported a 23% increase in first-half profit boosted by higher grocery sales and cost cuts.
Underlying pre-tax profit for the six months to 18 September rose to £371m from £301m a year earlier as group sales increased 5.9% to £17.53bn. Excluding fuel, retail sales rose 0.2% to £14.87bn. Sainsbury's reiterated its guidance for underlying pre-tax profit of at least £660m for the year to the end of March. The interim dividend was unchanged at 3.2p a share.