Investors will get another opportunity to gauge the temperature of the oil sector on Thursday as a host of industry-related companies report.
Perhaps the biggest of the lot is Amec Foster Wheeler, which, along with Lamprell and Hunting, is scheduled to update the market.
The fall in oil prices has hurt the business’s prospects as customers delay or cut back capital expenditure.
The first four months of 2015 saw like-for-like revenues fall by 3.6% to £1.6bn.
“We are likely to see a similar pattern in the latest half year trading update” analysts at The Share Centre said.
“However, the diverse nature of the company has seen other markets counteract falling demand, downstream markets in the US and Middle East see growth while in Europe there is continued growth in nuclear and transmission & distribution markets.”
Investors will be keen for updates on the size of the order book which last stood at roughly $6.7bn.
On the economic front, the Federal Reserve talking shop at Jackson Hole gets underway on Thursday, and the theme will be ‘Inflation Dynamics and Monetary Policy.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen is not planning to attend, which is almost unprecedented.
“With the event taking place just a few weeks ahead of the 17 September FOMC amidst much discussion over whether rate lift-off could take place at this point, we are keen to see which other Fed representatives are set to speak and whether their words provide any further guidance on the prospect of a September hike. We suspect they may not, given Ms Yellen’s non-attendance at the conference may be a ploy to avoid having to guide markets, too far ahead of time, on the chances of a September hike,” Investec’s economics team said.
Thursday
Interims: Aldermore Group (LON:ALD), Allied Minds (LON:ALM), Amec Foster Wheeler (LON:AMFW), Arrow Global Group (LON:ARW), Atlas Mara Co-invest (LON:ATMA), Cairn Homes (LON:CRN), Churchill China (LON:CHH), CRH (LON:CRH), Evraz (LON:EVR), Grafton Group (LON:GFTU), Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP), Hansteen Holdings (LON:HSTN), Hunting (LON:HTG), IFG Group (LON:IFP), International Public Partnership (LON:INPP), John Laing Group (LON:JLG), Lamprell (LON:LAM), Macfarlane Group (LON:MACF), Oxford Biomedica (LON:OXB), Petropavlovsk (LON:POG), Playtech (LON:PTEC), PPHE Hotel Group (LON:PPH), PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS), Servelec Group (LON:SERV), Signet Jewelers (LON:SIG), STV Group (LON:STVG), TCS Group Holding (LON:TCSA), The Renewables Infrastructure Group (LON:TRIG), Xaar (LON:XAR)
Final: Hays (LON:HAS)
The following widely-held stocks are trading ex-dividend on Thursday: Acacia Mining, Hikma, Intercontinental Hotels, Imperial Tobacco, Lancashire Holdings, London Stock Exchange, Rank Group, Rexam, Stagecoach, and Tullow Oil
Economic: UK – GfK consumer confidence. EU – Pending home sales; Preliminary GDP price index. US – Jackson Hole symposium; GDP; Weekly jobless claims