UK blue chips look set for a flat start this morning ahead of key UK inflation data as the relief rally following last week's terror attacks in London runs out of steam, with New York's overnight gains countered by flat performances in Asia as crude prices tick higher again, dealers said. Spread bettors IG Index expect the FTSE 100 index to open flat at around 5,242. The UK blue chip index closed 10.2 points firmer yesterday at 5,242.4. Overnight on Wall Street, the DJIA ended 70.60 points higher at 10,519.70, while the Nasdaq composite index finished up 22.55 points at 2,135.43, a six month high. US stocks gained for the third session in a row as a drop in crude prices, a flurry of M&A activity, and optimism about upcoming Q2 earnings combined to boost investor sentiment on the outlook for equities. After-hours, US drugs firm Genentech reported quarterly earnings that topped analysts' expectations, fuelled by strong sales for its growing portfolio of oncology products. A raft of Q2 earnings are due today in New York as the reporting season kicks off in earnest, with the main figures due from soft drinks giant PepsiCo. Today in Asia, the Nikkei 225 index at midday was up 27.44 points at 11,702.23 helped by gains among selected chip-related firms, while the Hang Seng Index ended its morning up just 4.56 points at 14,161.80 as yesterday's crude price weakness abated. Oil prices edged back closer to 60 usd a barrel in Asian trade as traders returned to the market on expectations US crude inventories to be released this week would show a fall after the shutdown of oil refineries on the US Gulf Coast ahead of the onslaught of Hurricane Dennis at the weekend. In London today all attention will be on the latest UK inflation numbers, due at 9.30 am. The June consumer price index is expected to rise by 1.9 pct for the fourth month running, just shy of the Bank of England's 2.0 pct target. However, the month-on-month rate is expected to be unchanged, down on the 0.4 pct recorded in May. The alternative measure of inflation, the retail price index, is expected to moderate somewhat from an annual 2.9 pct rate in May to 2.8 pct in June. Meanwhile, a survey released overnight showed that UK pay pressures have eased slightly in the three months to June from the start of the year, though they remain higher than a year ago. Income Data Services, the pay, HR and employment law specialists, revealed that the median level of pay rises across the whole economy stood at 3.1 pct in the three months to June. On the corporate front, once again blue chip news will be hard to come by with the only scheduled interest to be AGMs from hedge fund managers Man Group and directories business Yell Group. On the second line, AGM news from the London Stock Exchange will be the main focus, otherwise all the scheduled news looks set to come from the small cap arena. Results from IT services firm Anite Group should show a strong recovery in year to April 2005 profits. This view was reinforced in May when Anite said its underlying results for the twelve months will be at the top end of its expectations, thanks to a stronger than expected performance by the Telecoms division. Baird Equities anticipates Anite posting full year pretax profits of 19.2 mln stg, up from 15.4 mln in the previous year. Meanwhile the recovery story at Glotel should have continued apace as well. Baird Equities expects Glotel to report year to March 2005 pretax profit of 2.5 mln stg, up from a lowly 800,000 stg last year.