FTSE seen opening down

LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 index is seen opening down 36-38 points, or as much as 0.7 percent, on Thursday according to financial bookmakers, following a late retreat from highs on Wall Street, as investors eye news of the latest Bank of England rate decision due at 1200 GMT.

The UK blue-chip index closed 70.68 points higher on Tuesday at 5,107.89, recouping all of Tuesday's 1.3 percent losses when the index fell to its lowest closing level in a month.

Wall Street ended higher on Wednesday but saw its rally lose steam by the close, Asian shares dipped on Thursday, and the dollar fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve vowed to keep rates near zero for "an extended period" and said the recovery of the world's biggest economy would be sluggish.

The Fed's pledge to stick to a very loose monetary policy was expected and gave investors little new to trade on, although its cautious economic outlook prompted light profit-taking.

The Bank is also expected to keep interest rates on hold on Thursday.

However, a change is likely to the Bank's quantitative easing programme, with two-thirds of economists polled by Reuters forecasting at least a 25 billion pounds increase to 200 billion pounds after the economy unexpectedly contracted in the third quarter.

Ahead of the Bank announcement, investors will have September UK industrial and manufacturing output numbers to assess, with economists expecting a 1.0 percent rebound on the month for both after shock slides in August which were partly due to holiday shutdowns.

The European Central Bank council also delivers its interest rate verdict at 12:45 p.m. on Thursday, with economists expecting the ECB to hold eurozone rates steady and make no changes to its special lending measures.

After the Bank and ECB announcements, investors' attention will switch to the latest weekly U.S. initial jobless claims numbers for any indication of the unemployment trend ahead of Friday's key October U.S. jobs report.

(Reporting by Jon Hopkins; Editing by Erica Billingham)