UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Sept 19
Sept 19 - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening higher on Thursday, with futures up 0.8%.
* NEXT: British clothing retailer Next said it was on track to make annual profit of almost 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) as it raised its outlook for the second time in two months after better-than-expected recent trading.
* OCADO: British online supermarket Ocado Retail
lifted
its revenue guidance for its 2023-2024 year after sales jumped 15.5% in its latest quarter, as a focus on value attracted more customers.
* CLOSE BROTHERS: British lender Close Brothers Group said it has agreed to sell its wealth management business, Close Brothers Asset Management, to private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management in a deal worth up to 200 million pounds.
* S4 CAPITAL: Martin Sorrell's ad group S4 Capital said it would see a greater decline in net revenue this year than it previously expected after reporting a 13.5% drop in the first half, but cost cuts would keep operational earnings broadly flat.
* BOE: The Bank of England looks set to keep interest rates on hold on Thursday as it awaits signs that inflation risks are quashed, putting the focus instead on a decision about bond sales that could feed into Finance Minister Rachel Reeves' first budget.
* BP: BP's Pan American Energy is looking to negotiate contracts with Asian consumers to allocate liquefied natural gas from a floating project in Argentina, Rodolfo Freyre, a company vice president, told the GasTech conference.
* EX-DIVS: Drax, Unite Group and IG Group will trade without entitlement to its latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, along with Energean and Essentra .
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times
> Other business headlines ($1 = 0.7555 pounds) (Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and DhanushVignesh Babu in Bengaluru;)
