London Report: Home lending up but rise in UK prices is slowing
MORTGAGE approvals figures appear likely to show the housing market is moving again, after tough new MMR loan tests slowed lending figures.
However, house price data due on Thursday suggests prices may not be soaring as much as earlier this year. They are expected to have risen 0.5 per cent month-on-month in July – the smallest monthly increase since midway through last year.
Economist Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said: “Data tomorrow from Bank of England are forecast to show that mortgage approvals rose modestly to 63,000 in June having moderated for four months running to be at an 11-month low of 61,707 in May. This was down from 62,806 in April, 66,507 in March and a 74-month high of 75,901 in January.”
Other economic events this week include the Lloyds Business Barometer and GfK Consumer Confidence survey, both out on Wednesday, and manufacturing figures, which are due on Friday.
In the corporate calendar, Filtronic, Great Eastern Energy Corp, Great Portland Estates, Hiscox, Petra Diamonds, National Grid, Reckitt Benckiser and XP Power are all due to report today.
BP, Domino’s Pizza, Gem Diamonds, Greencore, Informa, Next, St James’s Place and Tullett Prebon will give figures tomorrow, while Atkins, Aer Lingus, Better Capital, British American Tobacco, Compass Group, First Quantum Minerals, Greggs, ITV, Moneysupermarket.com, Rightmove, Segro and Smurfit Kappa Group, Tullow Oil, Travis Perkins, Taylor Wimpey, will update the market on Wednesday.
Thursday is a busy day for the markets, with Diageo giving full-year results. AstraZeneca, BAE Systems, BA, BG Group, Centrica, Countrywide, Inchcape, Intu Properties, Investec, Lloyds, Laird, Merlin Entertainments, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, National Express, Promethean World, Royal Dutch Shell, Rolls-Royce, Samsung, Schroders, Telefonica, Thomas Cook Group, Volkswagen and Weir Group are all due to report.
On Friday Direct Line, Man Group, Capital & Counties Properties, Rexam, Rentokil, Robert Walters, Smith & Nephew, UBM and William Hill will give figures. RBS, which gave upbeat preliminary first-half figures last Friday, is due to give its full report for the first six months of 2014.