Thursday preview: QE decision, Rio, BG, Diageo

Busy though the company news schedule is on Thursday, it is the outcome of the meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that is likely to garner most of the attention on Thursday, as the market expects the MPC to announce another round of asset purchases (quantitative easing, or QE).

Busy though the company news schedule is on Thursday, it is the outcome of the meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that is likely to garner most of the attention on Thursday, as the market expects the MPC to announce another round of asset purchases (quantitative easing, or QE).

The smart money is on the MPC boosting its QE programme by £50bn to £325bn, while the committee is almost certain to leave its key lending rate unchanged at 0.5%, where it's been for nigh on three years. Barclays Capital (BarCap) expects the Bank of England (BoE) to again indicate that the asset purchases will be exclusively of conventional gilts.

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