(Sharecast News) - Investors' focus on Thursday will be on a raft of purchasing manager survey results due out in the UK, euro area US.

Those for the UK are scheduled for release at 0830 BST and are expected to show that activity in both manufacturing and services slowed a tad from September's pace.

The opposite is expected to have occurred in the single currency blow, whilst activity levels in the States are expected to have remained roughly steady.

A speech by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey at 1945 BST will also be closely watched.

On the corporate side of things, Barclays is due to release its third quarter results.

Analyst Jason Napier at UBS has pencilled in profit before tax, excluding litigation charges, of £1,871m.

Total revenues for the quarter meanwhile are seen rising by 1% year-on-year to £6,291m.

The lender's common equity tier one ratio was pegged to come in at 13.7%.

Napier was anticipating that the key areas of focus for investors would include the UK hedge tailwinds, the momentum in Barclays's revenues from investment banking, consumer credit quality in the States and CET1 build.

Thursday 24 October

INTERIMS

Bloomsbury Publishing

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Harworth Group, Morgan Sindall Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BAE Systems, Marshalls, Morgan Advanced Materials , Sanderson Design Group, Serica Energy, Touchstar

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Abrdn DIversified Income And Growth, Law Debenture Corp.

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Brunner Inv Trust, City of London Inv Trust, Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

New Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

PMI Composite (EU) (09:00)

PMI Composite (GER) (08:30)

PMI Manufacturing (GER) (07:30)

PMI Manufacturing (09:30)

PMI Manufacturing (EU) (09:00)

PMI Services (09:30)

PMI Services (EU) (09:00)

PMI Services (GER) (08:30)

Q3

Essentra, Indivior, Kerry Group 'A' Shares (CDI)

FINALS

Gattaca, Softcat

ANNUAL REPORT

Brooks Macdonald Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Thorpe (F.W.)

AGMS

Alumasc Group, Brooks Macdonald Group, Kooth , Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Inchcape, London Stock Exchange Group, Renishaw, Unilever, W.A.G Payment Solutions

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

PMI Composite (09:30)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Kier Group, MJ Gleeson , Pacific Horizon Inv Trust, Thorpe (F.W.), Wetherspoon (J.D.)