(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Monday, as investors look ahead to three key interest-rate decisions this week.

"The strong start to 2023 appears to have given way to a little bit of caution for markets in Europe as we look to this week's trifecta of central bank meetings, and what sort of outlook is painted by the Federal Reserve, ECB and Bank of England, and more importantly how many more rate hikes can we expect to see after next week," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The Fed announces its interest rate decision on Wednesday, before the BoE and ECB follow on Thursday.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open down 29.35 points, or 0.4%, at 7,735.8 on Monday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 4.04 points, 0.1%, at 7,765.15 on Friday.

The FTSE 100 added just 0.2% over the course of last week, but the FTSE 250 and AIM All-Share indices did better, rising 2.4% and 2.0%, respectively.

Sterling was quoted at USD1.2393 early Monday, higher than USD1.2383 at the London equities close on Friday.

The euro traded at USD1.0866 early Monday, higher than USD1.0857 late Friday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JP129.53, lower versus JPY129.87.

In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.1%, the S&P 500 up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.0%.

In Tokyo on Monday, the Nikkei 225 index was up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 2.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.2%.

Gold was quoted at USD1,931.42 an ounce early Monday, higher than USD1,930.80 late Friday. Brent oil was trading at USD85.95 a barrel early Monday, down USD86.78 late Friday.

Monday's local corporate calendar has a trading statement from computer services company Computacenter and annual results from filtration, laboratory and environmental company Porvair.

Already out, Ryanair reported a swing to third-quarter profit, with results boosted by higher prices and stronger demand over the Christmas period.

The Dublin-based budget carrier posted revenue of EUR2.31 billion in the three months to December 31, up 57% from EUR1.47 billion a year earlier. Ryanair swung to a pretax profit of EUR212.8 million from a EUR132.8 million loss. It reported a net profit of EUR211 million, swinging from a loss of EUR96 million.

The company hailed "strong travel demand" over the festive period and said fares were 14% higher than pre-Covid levels.

The economic calendar on Monday has a eurozone economic sentiment indicator at 1000 GMT.

The week picks up pace with a eurozone gross domestic product reading on Tuesday and inflation data from the single currency area on Wednesday, in addition to the central bank decisions.

There also are a host of services PMIs, including from the UK, eurozone, US and China, due on Friday.

By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter

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