City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 19 points from yesterday's close of 6,323, tracking declines seen in the US and Asia overnight.

The main US equity benchmarks finished the day trading slightly lower, following the announcement of a surprise drop in fourth quarter 2012 gross domestic product.

That shortfall seems to have been due, in no small part, to potentially transitory factors, such as the uncertainty regarding the ´sequestration´ of government defence programs and a running down in inventory levels.

Announcements on today's agenda include US Bloomberg consumer confidence, US personal spending and income, US initial jobless claims, the German unemployment rate, and EU international reserves.

The GfK UK consumer confidence for the month of January improved to -26 points from -29 in the previous month (Consensus: -28).

The Nationwide index of house prices rose by 0.5% month-on-month in January, versus a projected rise of 0.2%.

In UK company news, engineering support services company Babcock said it has traded well in the interim period from October to date and remains confident of meeting expectations for the year. The group added that market conditions remain positive, with bidding activity high across the group, making it confident of delivering strong progress on last year.

Utilities group SSE said on Thursday that it is on course to deliver increases in both adjusted profits and its dividend this year despite a slight fall in the number of customer accounts during the first nine months. The full-year dividend will likely increase by at least 2.0% more than RPI inflation to 84p per share, it said.

Conference and exhibition organiser ITE Group has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, International Trade and Exhibitions, acquired a 75 per cent stake in Trade Link, a Malaysian-registered company, for around £4.0m. Trade Link runs a number of events that take place together annually at Kuala Lumpur's Putra World Trade Centre.

Analysts at JP Morgan have raised their view on shares of Lonmin to overweight from neutral.

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