Thursday preview: Dixons' impressive rise could continue

Investors will be looking to see whether High Street electrical retailer Dixons can continue its spectacular year-to-date rise with the release of its interim results on Thursday.

The company, which owns PC World and Currys, has benefitted as of late from the deterioration of retail rival Comet and has seen its share price rocket 165% in 2012 so far.

Comet, the UK's second-largest electrical specialist after Dixons, went into administration earlier this month. It is estimated to have made a loss of £35m in the year to April.

Dixons said in September that it had made an "encouraging" start to the year with total group sales up 2% year-on-year in sterling terms in the first 12 weeks to July 21st. Like-for-like (LFL) sales were up 5% with decent growth in the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe offsetting some declines in Southern Europe.

Speaking last week, analysts at Morgan Stanley said that "Comet's likely demise is a game-changer for Currys."

"60% of its stores are within 0.5 miles of a Currys and we expect Dixons to capture around 40% of its £1.2bn annual sales."

Morgan Stanley said: "Dixons is a big retailer masquerading as a mid-cap and we believe its recovery has much further to run [...] Indeed, the stock could still more than triple."

INTERIMS

API Group, Dixons Retail , Hogg Robinson Group, Mountview Estate, PayPoint, Pennon Group, Phoenix IT Group, WYG

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Moss Bros Group, Prime People

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Schlumberger Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)

Business Climate Indicator (EU) (10:00)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Economic Sentiment Indicator (EU) (10:00)

GDP (Preliminary) (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

PMI Retail (GER) (08:55)

Unemployment Rate (GER) (08:55)

GMS

Media Corporation

FINALS

Marston's, Shaftesbury

AGMS

Avia Health Informatics, Baillie Gifford Japan Trust, Berkeley Resources Ltd. (DI), BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust, Harbourvest Senior Loans Europe Ltd., Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI), Red Rock Resources, Victoria Oil & Gas, Wolseley

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Impax Asset Management Group, Kingfisher

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

Consumer Credit (09:30)

M4 Money Supply (estimate) (09:30)

M4 Sterling Lending (estimate) (09:30)

Mortgage Approvals (09:30)

PMI Retail (EU) (09:00)

Trends in Lending (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Wetherspoon (J.D.)

BC