London stock market looks to Brown's budget

London investors would this week look to British finance chief Gordon Brown's budget for direction, as the end of the corporate results season draws closer, analysts said. The FTSE 100 index of leading London shares closed at 4,982.0 points on Friday, down 54.3 points, or 1.08 percent, over the week.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's budget on Wednesday would likely be the last before a general election, widely predicted for early May.
"It's possible that next week's budget being a pre-election budget will ... have some boost to voters which may have implications for the market," said economist Alex Scott, of Seven Investment Management.
"But I don't think we are expecting anything with significant consequences immediately for the market as a whole," he added.
After a good season of corporate results, the market was looking to sustain the FTSE 100 index of leading shares above the psychologically important 5,000 points barrier, he added.
"We reached the peak in the middle of February, pulled back since then, being up and down through 5,000 several times and the market is pausing for breath at the moment," Scott said.
The market was "in a phase at the moment where (it) has rallied very, very strongly in a period of months and is perhaps just consolidating its positions".
Other economic data due out next week includes producer prices on Monday, unemployment on Wednesday and February sales figures on Thursday.
On the corporate news front, Kingfisher, Europe's largest home-improvement retailer and sponsor of record-breaking British yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur, was to unveil its annual results Thursday.
The same day Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus will publish its full-year figures.
Looking ahead to the results, investors were looking for a lift, Scott added.
"In order to see another major move upward from here, we do need to see another source of good news. "That may be another round of upgraded expectations on company earnings - expectations at the moment for UK companies are quite subdued and I do think there is possibly scope for those to be pushed higher.
That might provide the boost that the FTSE needs to sustain itself above 5,000 points, he said.