Friday preview: Robust performance expected from William Hill

Hot on the heels of a trading update from Ladbrokes comes an interim management statement from perennial bookmaking rival William Hill.

"The key catalyst will be the successful resolvement [sic] of the William Hill Online (WHO) JV [joint venture] with Playtech," reckons Panmure Gordon.

"We expect trading to have remained robust with a better Cheltenham festival than last year and unpredictable football results," the broker said.

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Peel Hunt expects a continuation of the positive trends seen over the past few years, although it notes that William Hill online is up against tough benchmarks.

"It will be interesting to see how machine gross win per week is progressing, given that the company was well ahead of Ladbrokes in terms of implementing a successful machines strategy," Peel Hunt added.

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Abcam, AdEPT Telecom, Brooks Macdonald Group, Craneware, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1, Matrix Income & Growth 2 VCT, Smiths Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Personal Assets Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)

IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)

IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)

Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

GMS

Summit Corporation

FINALS

Alpha Bank GDR (Reg S) USD, National Bank of Greece ADR, Shaft Sinkers Holdings

ANNUAL REPORT

Travis Perkins

IMSS

Spectris, William Hill

AGMS

Capital & Counties Properties , Mediwatch, Rotork, Spectris

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Record

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Access Intelligence, Heavitree Brewery, Heavitree Brewery 'A' Shares

Q1

African Barrick Gold

JH