Tuesday's session was marked by UK Services PMI data. UK service sector growth remained sluggish in March, according to the latest PMI survey data from Markit and CIPS. Total activity increased at a slightly faster rate than in February, but on a quarterly basis growth over the first three months of 2016 was the weakest since Q1 2013. Moreover, incoming new business increased at the slowest rate since January 2013. The Business Activity Index rose to 53.7 in March, from February’s 35-month low of 52.7. This signalled a faster rate of growth in output, but the second-weakest in six months.

On Friday, from the UK, Industrial Production figures were released. Total production output is estimated to have decreased by 0.5% in February 2016 compared with the same month a year ago, the largest fall since August 2013. The largest contribution to the fall came from manufacturing, which decreased by 1.8%. This was the largest fall since July 2013, when it fell by an equal amount. There were decreases in 10 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors, with the largest contribution coming from the manufacture of machinery & equipment not elsewhere classified, which decreased by 10.6% and contributed a downward 0.5 percentage points to total production.

Total production output is estimated to have decreased by 0.3% between January 2016 and February 2016. Analysts were predicting 0.1% increase. There were decreases in 2 of the 4 main sectors, with manufacturing (the largest component of production) having the largest contribution to the decrease, falling by 1.1%. Manufacturing output decreased in 11 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors, with the largest contribution coming from the manufacture of transport equipment, which decreased by 2.9%.

This week markets will be looking at:

CPI/PPI Input (Tuesday 10:30)

Official Bank Rate/BoE Meeting Minutes (Thursday 14:30)