Investors are bracing for a flood of corporate results as well as a first look at second quarter British economic growth after a strong five-day run on the London Stock Exchange. The FTSE 100 index finished the week on Friday at 5,376.4 points, a gain of 2.18 percent from the close on Friday, July 11.
The performance, seen as a sign of hope for the world economy, broke an eight-week string of successive weekly declines on the exchange. The market is now looking ahead to first quarter results from mobile phone giant Vodafone as well as half-year results from pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline, gas prospector BG Group and engine-maker Rolls-Royce.
Mining giant BHP Billiton is also to release second quarter production figures. British retail sales figures for June are due to be reported on Thursday, with analysts keenly interested to see if they will show a revision of the May figures, which economists had found to be surprisingly robust.
Investors are also preparing themselves for what is projected to be a weak report on second quarter economic momentum in Britain. Growth came to just 0.3 percent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of 2007 and 2.3 percent from the first quarter last year.
Economist Howard Archer at Global Insight said he expected growth of 0.2 percent in the second quarter compared with the first and 1.6 percent on the year. A growing number of economists now foresees a British recession at the end of this year or early in 2009.
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