Proactive Investors - The FTSE 100 is set to start slightly higher on Wednesday morning, having ended a four-day winning run yesterday.
London's blue-chip index is trading just over three points higher on spread-betting platforms, a day after closing 9.29 points lower at 7719.21.
Results from HSBC (LON:HSBA) will direct some of the market sentiment this morning, with shares in Europe's biggest bank down 3% in Hong Kong after results were released earlier, showing fourth-quarter profits falling just over 80% to $1 billion.
This largely reflected a $3 billion impairment charge relating to an investment in associate Chinese bank BoCom, the sale of retail banking operations in France and a further writedown on commercial real estate.
On the plus side for investors, the board approved a fourth interim dividend of $0.31 per share, resulting in a total for 2023 of $0.61 per share, and promised a share buyback of up to $2 billion.
Profits for the year rose almost 80% to $30.3 billion, which chief executive Noel Quinn noted was a record performance, which he said "enabled us to reward our shareholders with our highest full-year dividend since 2008, three share buy-backs last year totalling $7bn, and a further share buy-back of up to $2bn. This reflected four years of hard work and the strength of our balance sheet in a higher interest rate environment."