Stock market investors in London will pore over British company earnings news and the latest monthly interest rate decision from the Bank of England when they return to their desks next week. The FTSE 100 index ended the week on Friday at 5,354.70 points, up 0.04 percent from the close of trade a week earlier.
After digesting bumper half-year earnings from energy giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP this week, attention next Monday turns to Britain's biggest bank HSBC. Investors will be keen to see the cost to the bank of write-downs caused by the US subprime housing crisis and resulting credit crunch.
Other British banks to post earnings next week include Standard Chartered and Barclays. The Bank of England meanwhile gives its interest rate decision on Thursday.
BoE policymakers were split three ways when they left interest rates unchanged in July, reflecting the dilemma they face in controlling soaring inflation while boosting growth.
The BoE's nine-member monetary policy committee voted 7-2 to leave borrowing costs at 5.00 percent. One of the nine policymakers had called for a quarter-point cut to borrowing costs last month and another for a hike by the same amount.
Britain's 12-month inflation rate jumped to a 16-year high of 3.8 percent in June. The country's economy is meanwhile closer to a recession after official data showed it had slowed further during the second quarter as the construction and manufacturing industries weakened. Gross domestic product grew by only 0.2 percent in the April to June period compared with the first three months of 2008 - the slowest pace of economic growth for more than three years, according to the Office for National Statistics.