The London stock market may extend recent gains next week as investors digest the outcome of this weekend's international finance meeting in Washington amid fresh economic data and company results. By Friday on the London Stock Exchange, the benchmark FTSE 100 index finished the week at 5,657.61 points, up 1.16 percent from a week earlier.
This weekend, major world powers are gathering in Washington to try and avert a damaging global "currency war" and address the weak level of the dollar. With recovery slowing, recent weeks have seen some nations intervene to stop their currencies from rising to levels that would make their exports prohibitively expensive. That has sparked talk of a currency war and cast a shadow over global financial markets.
Finance ministers and central bankers from 187 countries are convening for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund amid concern that currency policies could wreck the fragile global economic recovery. "From a currencies perspective, many will look to developments at the meeting to see if there is anything done to stop the dollar from weakening," said City Index analyst Joshua Raymond.
He added: "There could however be much volatility triggered by the third-quarter earnings season in the United States and a range of important economic data due out throughout the week. "We are now in third-quarter season and so naturally we will see a shift in attention towards US companies that report.
"Next week we have Intel, J. P Morgan, Google, General Electric all reporting and so naturally we will see European traders react to this," he added. In Britain next week, there is data on inflation, unemployment and trade. Key trading updates are due from mining giant Rio Tinto and drinks group Diageo.