LONDON WEEK AHEAD
RESULTS season continues with a slew of banks, energy and leisure firms due to update this week, while the Bank of England’s monthly decision on interest rates is due on Thursday.
Today’s biggest news comes in the form of interims from under-fire banking giant HSBC and household goods behemoth Reckitt Benckiser.
The Bank is set to give mortgage approvals and consumer credit data while the CBI distributive trades survey is also due out.
Tomorrow BP is set to deliver its latest interim figures. The company is still negotiating in the US over a possible settlement for the Gulf of Mexico disaster and has also been in the spotlight over its fraught Russian joint venture TNK-BP.
Analysts forecast the firm’s profits, excluding exceptional items, to come in at round $4.4bn for the three months to the end of June, down from $5.7bn at the same time last year, because of the lower price of oil.
Weir, Fresnillo, Tullett Prebon and Wolfson Microelectronics are all set to give interim reports and the GfK NOP consumer confidence survey is due out.
On Wednesday housebuilder Taylor Wimpey is set to update the market, while interim results are due from F&C Asset Management, Rightmove and Shire. Antofagasta, ENRC and Next are also set to release results.
Economics news will include manufacturing PMI figures, the Nationwide house prices index and the BRC shop price index.
On Thursday defence manufacturing titan BAE Systems will give half-year results, with analysts expecting an earnings drop because of defence spending cuts.
It will be a busy day for corporate reporting, with Aggreko, Alliance Trust, Ladbrokes, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, RSA Insurance Group, Schroders, Segro, Smith & Nephew and Trinity Mirror all updating the market.
As well as the Bank’s monetary policy committee decision, which is expected to return a rate freeze at 0.5 per cent, the ECB will meet on Thursday to discuss how to save the euro.
On Friday part-nationalised bank RBS will unveil its first half results. Analysts expect it to post a £1.2bn loss with issues such as payment protection insurance and interest rate swap mis-selling weighing heavily.