What's in store today...

What is lacking on the corporate front is more than made up for by economic announcements on Tuesday.

Ahead of a huge slew of statistics, comes a trading statement from Premier Oil (PMO) which is expected to be conservative.

The oil and gas firm said in May that it was confident it would achieve production targets.

But Sanjeev Bahl at Numis says these figures are at risk given uncertainty surrounding a number of the company's UK North Sea developments. "We believe developments delays could limit re-rating in the short term, hence our move from 'buy' to 'add'. We have a preference for EnQuest (ENQ) which trades at a similar rating, but with less development uncertainty."

The day will also bring the latest figures for British Retail Consortium (BRC) sales, RICS house prices, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI).

Howard Archer, chief UK and european economist at IHS Global Insight believes the BRC will be weak, thereby providing further evidence that seriously pressurised and worried consumers have stopped spending since the spikes over the sunny Bank Holidays.

He said: "The likelihood is that consumer spending will be muted for some time to come as household purchasing power remains under severe pressure from high inflation, low wage growth and tighter fiscal policy."

With the RICS survey, Archer expects the data will show the balance of surveyors reporting that house prices increased over the previous three months rallied modestly to -23% in June after relapsing to a 2011-low of -28% in May from -21% in April.

He predicts that the total trade deficit is expected to have narrowed marginally to £2.7 billion in May from £2.8 billion in April.

Good news is forecast on both RPI and CPI: "We suspect that inflation was stable in June as higher food prices countered a drop in fuel prices and some retailers starting their summer sales earlier to try to get hard pressed consumers to part with their cash.

Although consumer price inflation may well have stood at 4.5% for a third month running in June, it remains likely that it will reach 5% later this year.

Results

(Interim) Hyder Consulting, Luminar

Trading updates

Premier Oil, Computacenter, Young & Co.