Wednesday preview: Diageo, MPC minutes

Drinks brands leviathan Diageo will be going up against tough comparative figures from a year ago when it unveils fiscal first-quarter figures on Wednesday.

Nomura thinks the Guinness brewer will still manage to churn out organic revenue growth of 5%. with strong growth in emerging markets and resilience in the US more than offsetting the slow-down in Europe.

"We do not expect any change to the company's medium-term guidance (6% revenue growth, 200bp [two percentage points] on margin over three years)," the Japanese broker revealed.

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Minutes from the October meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be released at 09:30.

The Bank's current round of quantitative easing (QE) ends next month and economists will be scouring the minutes to see whether there are any clues as to whether the QE tap will be turned on again.

MPC member Martin Weale, for one, has expressed concern about sanctioning more QE while inflation remains above the Bank's 2.0% target rate. Weale's colleagues Ben Broadbent and Spencer Dale have also recently gone on record to warn about inflation risks.

The Bank of England increased its asset purchase pot by £50bn to £375bn in July.

INTERIMS

Datatec Ltd. (DI), Vertu Motors

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Dunedin Income Growth Inv Trust, Neptune-Calculus Income & Growth VCT, Premier Farnell

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BAE Systems, British Polythene Industries, Capital Shopping Centres Group, Foresight Solar VCT, JZ Capital Partners Ltd, Kerry Group 'A' Shares, Mears Group, Octopus Apollo VCT, S & U, Scisys, Smart Metering Systems, Spectris, Ted Baker, TT Electronics

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd., Middlefield Canadian Income PCC

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Building Permits (US) (13:30)

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Housing Starts (US) (13:30)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Wholesale Price Index (GER) (07:00)

Q3

MCB Bank Ltd GDR (Reg S)

GMS

Persimmon, Vipera

IMSS

Diageo

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Inv Trust

AGMS

Diageo, Diverse Income Trust (The), Vipera, Wasabi Energy

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Speedy Hire

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30)

Claimant Count Rate (09:30)

Unemployment Rate (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

News Corp. 'A' Shares

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Animalcare Group, Avingtrans, Close Brothers Group, Henderson EuroTrust, Quayle Munro Holdings, Ricardo, Stavert Zigomala, Strategic Equity Capital, Wilmington Group

JH