THE WEEK AHEAD
Today
A diverse group of FTSE 100 reporters will kick off a busy week in the corporate calendar this morning, with banking giant HSBC likely to be top of many investors’ watch list. Analysts are expecting the bank’s geographical diversity to offset any potential weakness in it investment banking division, with profits expected to hit £14bn – more than double the amount that Barclays posted last week.
Away from banking, Associated British Foods will be looking to continue the strong growth in revenue in its sugar and agriculture businesses, which drove revenue growth at the group’s last update in mid-January. It will also be hoping that the drop in cotton prices will have fed through to profits at its budget retail chain Primark.
Also reporting are distribution and outsourcing firm Bunzl, Financial Times-owner Pearson and Essar Energy, which will be hoping to put its recent Indian tax troubles behind it for the time being to focus on its full-year earnings. Among the mid-caps, housebuilder Bovis, manufacturing group Cookson, insurer Hiscox and defence technology firm Ultra Electronics will all release full-year results.
Tuesday
Bellwether Persimmon will be looking to continue the upbeat trend set by housebuilders Barratt and Galliford Try when it reports full-year results on Tuesday, though consensus forecasts are for revenue to fall 2.5 per cent to around £1.53bn. The company’s ex-London focus means it may be more vulnerable to regional weaknesses, but analysts at Northland say activity has remained constant across the UK, underpinning revenue growth in line with expectations.
Joining it will be Costa Coffee and Premier Inn-owner Whitbread, which was weighed down last week by a short-term “trading sell” rating from analysts at Credit Suisse, who are expecting subdued growth in revenue per available room at Premier to mean the group pre-close update will disappoint markets. Also reporting will be support services giant Serco, which has been trading strongly ahead of its full-year results.
Among the smaller companies updating markets today are media group UBM and speciality chemicals company AZ Electronics.
Wednesday
Broadcaster ITV (see p13) is one FTSE 100 reporter to look out for on Wednesday, along with Standard Chartered, the second Asia-focused bank to report this week. Profits are expected to outperform the majority of its UK banking peers.
International Airlines Group is also expected to turn in an impressive full-year performance, with profits forecast to have doubled over the year as the Iberia-BA tie-up begins to reap rewards.
Elsewhere, Capital & Counties and Taylor Wimpey will provide more perspective on the property sector, while Carillion, National Express, Sage and Sportingbet will also report.
Thursday
Man Group is the one to watch as we move into March, with consensus outlook not good for the alternative investment management business. Copper focused miner Kazakhmys, which has already announced it met all its major output targets in 2011.
Stagecoach, Bwin.party and communications group Spirent are among the smaller firms updating the market.
Friday
A quieter day to finish off the week, with engineering group IMI leading the FTSE 100 reporters. IMI has been on the acquisition trail recently, snapping up small businesses in Italy and Brazil, so investors will be looking for a positive outlook on synergies from the tie-ups. Laird, BBA Aviation and Rentokil will also report.