Suspicions that the City is trying to get all of its business out of the way before the onset of the London Olympics are supported by the barrage of company results due on Thursday.
Among the heavyweights expected to report are Astra, BG, BSkyB, Centrica, Compass, Capital Shopping, Intertek, Invensys, ITV, Lloyds Banking, ITV, National Express, Qinetiq, Royal Dutch Shell, Reed Elsevier, Rolls-Royce, SABMiller, Tate & Lyle, Travis Perkins and Unilever.
Pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca will release its second-quarter statement on Thursday. Consensus estimates are for $6,800m of sales and earnings per share (EPS) of $1.40 in the three-month period.
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"Further cost cutting should support the near-term dividend, however we see a risk of EPS downgrades as AZN diverts money from share buybacks to pay for assets to refill the sales line," said analysts at Credit Suisse.
Oil and gas group BG is expected to report second quarter (Q2) net income of $1.12bn, pretty much the same as it did last year.
"Although there was the Elgin gas leak (operated by Total) during Q2, BG has started new production in Egypt, Bolivia and Norway which could help overall production growth of about 4% during the second quarter," writes Tony Shepard, an investment analyst at Charles Stanley.
"Of course, Q2 oil & gas prices are lower by about 8% and so we expect a lower profit from the Exploration & Production division of about $1.25bn (2011; $1.4bn)," Shepard continued.
"There will be keen interest in progress in Brazil and in particular what (if any) effects are expected from Petrobras's recent downgrade to its production guidance," Shepard added.
Another solid set of figures is expected from pay TV and Internet service provider British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) on Thursday.
The market thinks pre-tax profits will push on to £1.14bn, up from £987m the year before. Earnings per share are seen advancing to 49.44p from 41.6p last year. Consensus forecast for revenue is £6.77bn, up from £6.60bn the year before, which is perhaps not the sparkling top line growth the company has delivered in the past, but still impressive in an environment where unemployment is on the rise and discretionary spending is on the wane.
Sam Hart at Charles Stanley is predicting the company will have added a net 80,000 households to its customer base, taking it up to 10.6m.
"TV customers are expected to be up by 20,000 to 10.3m, Multi-room by 18,000 to 2.4m and HD [high definition] by 125,000 to 4.3m. Take up of telecommunications products is expected to have remained strong, with Broadband customers up by 165,000 to 4.0m, Sky Talk up by 170,000 to 3.8m and line rental by 210,000 to 3.5m," Hart said.
"The number of standalone broadband customers is forecast to be up by 60,000 to 340,000. Average revenue per user is expected to be up by 1.3% year-on-year to £545. Churn [percentage of customers terminating contracts] is forecast to have remained close to the targeted level of 10%," Hart added.
INTERIMS
Arbuthnot Banking Group, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SPA, AstraZeneca, BG Group, Capital Shopping Centres Group, Centrica, Communisis, Hongkong Land Holding Ltd. (Singapore), Hrvatske Telekom D.D GDR (Reg S), Intertek Group, ITV, Lloyds Banking Group, Mandarin Oriental International (Singapore), National Express Group, Nichols, Petroleum Geo Services ASA, Promethean World, Rathbone Brothers, Reed Elsevier, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Secure Trust Bank, St James's Place, Unilever
QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Land Securities Group
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
M3 Money Supply (EU) (09:00)
Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)
Q2
AstraZeneca, BG Group, Petroleum Geo Services ASA, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Unilever
Q4
British Sky Broadcasting Group
FINALS
British Sky Broadcasting Group
ANNUAL REPORT
Stellar Resources
IMSS
Compass Group, Invensys, Investec, QinetiQ Group, Tate & Lyle, Workspace Group
EGMS
Zhejiang Southeast Electric Power Co Ltd. GDR (Reg S)
AGMS
Caffyns, Connemara Mining Co, De La Rue, Dee Valley Group, Dee Valley Group (Non-Voting), F&C Global Smaller Companies, Hornby, Mentum Inc., Naibu Global International Company, Octopus Apollo VCT 3, Octopus Eclipse VCT 2, Pennon Group, Personal Assets Trust, Phoenix IT Group, QinetiQ Group, Record, RENN Universal Growth Investment Trust, RIT Capital Partners, SABMiller, Sirius Petroleum, SSE, Stellar Resources, Synergy Health, Tate & Lyle, Volex, Wincanton, Workspace Group, Yell Group, Zanaga Iron Ore Co. Ltd (DI)
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
SABMiller
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Caffyns, DCC, HaiKe Chemical Group Ltd. (DI), Helical Bar, Martin Currie Pacific Trust, MDM Engineering Group Ltd. (DI), Octopus AIM VCT, Octopus Apollo VCT 1, Octopus Apollo VCT 2, Petropavlovsk
JH
Annual house price growth halves to 3.5% – ONS
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