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Thursday's agenda: Super Thursday as BoE embraces change

Published: 19:06 05 Aug 2015 BST

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Although it is a typically busy day for company results, economic events may succeed in grabbing centre-stage.

Dubbed “Super Thursday” in an all too predictable outbreak of predictability, the Bank of England (BoE) will, as usual, announce its interest rate and asset purchase policies, but this time round it will also release the minutes of last week's Monetary Policy Committee meeting plus the latest quarterly inflation report, and then hold a one-hour press conference.

All of which might lead one to suspect the Bank is preparing to spring a surprise on the market in the form of an interest rate hike, but most City pundits think this is unlikely … then again, it would not be much of a surprise if it was expected, would it?

“This is a new way of doing business for the BoE, and is part of Governor Mark Carney’s plans to make the bank’s decision-making process more transparent. It also brings the BOE in line with the Federal Reserve, ECB and BOJ, who all hold press conferences after the release of their interest rate decisions,” explains Kathleen Brooks, research director at FOREX.com.

“On balance we think that a more hawkish outcome from Super Thursday is more likely than a dovish or neutral outcome, which could trigger a market readjustment after midday UK time on Thursday.” Brooks said.

Richard de Meo at another forex specialist, Foenix, reckons a split decision on the interest rate is the most likely outcome, but in order for the market to get too excited it would have to involve a third MPC member joining the two recognised hawks on the committee.

On the company news front, Numis reckons interim results from RSA Insurance (LONLRSA) have taken on less relevance given recent potential bid interest from Swiss insurer Zurich, but, be that as it may, it is expecting a significant improvement in profitability, as results from other insurers indicate the weather has been a lot kinder to the sector this year.

It has pencilled in £218mln for profit before tax.

Hargreaves Lansdown has picked struggling emergency power provider Aggreko (LONAGK) as the stock to watch on Thursday.

“An emerging markets slowdown and lower oil and gas prices impacting on North American shale businesses provides the current backdrop. Underlying trading profit for the first half is expected by management to be lower than last year, principally due to higher mobilisation costs, with underlying trading profit for the full year being broadly in line with last year,” the broker said.

Significant announcements expected

Interims: Aggreko (LON:AGK), Aviva (LON:AV.), Cobham (LON:COB), Genel Energy (LON:GENL), GW Pharmaceuticals (LON:GWP), Hill & Smith Holdings (LON:HILS), Inmarsat (LON:ISAT), Investec (LON:INVP), Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate (LON:KWE), Mondi (LON:MNDI), Old Mutual (LON:OML), Randgold Resources Ltd (LON:RRS), Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA), Spirent Communications (LON:SPT)

Trading statements: easyJet (LON:EZJ), Enterprise Inns (LON: ETI), SABMiller (LON:SAB), UDG Healthcare (LON:UDG)

Economic: UK – BoE inflation report, MPC rate setting and asset purchase decision, Industrial production. Eurozone – Retail PMI. US – Weekly unemployment claims

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