Britain's stock market will seek to build on recent gains next week when a batch of companies issue their latest earnings numbers, alongside an update on the country's economic growth. On Friday, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares ended at 5,903.40 points - up 1.43 percent or 83.3 points from a week earlier.
The FTSE had tumbled the previous week after British police foiled a plan to bomb US-bound passenger planes. Analysts said they expected recent strength in company results to continue. "We are confident European earnings can continue to grow," said Lars Kreckel, an analyst with Dutch bank ABN Amro.
"For 2007, we see little risk of falling earnings. Given current valuations, this should be enough to drive equity prices higher from current levels."
Companies announcing results next week include InterContinental Hotels Group, Anglo-Australian resources giant BHP Billiton and business services firm Rentokil Initial.
BHP's results on Wednesday will be of interest because the mining giant will almost certainly make mention of an ongoing strike at its Escondida mine in Chile - the biggest copper mine in the world.
On Friday, all eyes will be on the second estimate of British economic growth.
The economy grew by 0.8 percent during the second quarter of 2006 compared with the previous three months, according to initial estimates last month, marking the fastest quarterly rate of growth for two years.
"Recent weeks have been dominated by a debate about future growth which, for equity markets, boils down to the path of corporate earrnings growth," Kreckel added "We side with the optimists on this debate, forecasting robust GDP and earnings growth this year and next."