The publication next Friday of second quarter British growth figures will be anxiously awaited by British investors at a time of rising doubts about global economic recovery prospects, analysts said. The FTSE 100 index ended the current week at 5,158.85 points, up just 0.50 percent, in what analysts described as hesitant trading, from the close on July 9.
At IG Index, economists said investors did not have access to enough data to dispel worries about the pace of growth, preventing any solid gains on the market.
The key figure in the coming week will be the government's first estimate of second quarter British momentum, which is foreseen by analysts to be around 0.6 percent compared with the previous quarter and 1.1 percent on the year.
The annual gain would be the first since second quarter 2008. In the first quarter British GDP grew 0.3 percent from the final three months of 2009 and contracted 0.2 percent on the year. The government will also report on the state of public finances in June on Tuesday, the Bank of England will publish the minutes of its last policy-setting session on Wednesday and June retail sales figures will be released on Thursday.
The Bank of England minutes are expected to draw particular interest because at the May meeting, one participant called for a hike in British interest rates, the first time such a position had been taken since August 2008.
In corporate news, pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline, miner BHP Billiton, British telecom group BT, cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco, retailer Kingfisher, brewer SABMiller and mobile phone giant Vodafone are all scheduled to publish their financial results.