The Week Ahead: Insurance giants set toreveal mixed fortunes
Related articles
-
The Week Ahead: Lloyds figures unlikelyto cheer their ailing boss
-
The Week Ahead: Berkeley is tipped to keep building its sales strength
-
Hamish McRae: Europe's debt problems won't stop until it gets its head around growth
-
The Week Ahead: Analysts await Travis Perkins investment plan
-
Simon English: Dimon's happy to wait for a eurozone solution
Today
In what is a quiet start to the week, Ark Therapeutics is one of the few companies to update the market, with the healthcare firm unveiling its preliminary results. The group, which is listed on the fledgling index, is expected to reveal revenues for 2011 of £8m, while its net cash position will also be in focus, given it announced in November that it expected this to have risen from the £5.4m it had at the half-year stage.
Results/Updates: Ark Therapeutics and Brady.
Tomorrow
The recent run of results from the insurers continues on Tuesday when Prudential and Standard Life release their figures for 2011. JP Morgan's Ashik Musaddi believes the latter will have enjoyed a "modest" last three months of the year, both in terms of sales and assets under management growth. Overall, the analyst is forecasting a full-year operating profit of £479m – which would be a 13 per cent rise – and predicts that its net profit will have dropped 19 per cent to £349m after having received a £59m credit in 2010 thanks to a change in pension scheme liabilities.
Meanwhile, Prudential – which was making noises last month about possibly upping sticks and moving its headquarters away from the UK – is expected by Nomura to reveal a 13 per cent year-on-year fall in its fourth-quarter net book value. Although the broker's analysts believe it will have continued to see strong growth in Asia, they warn that the group will have been hit by the effects of a drop in sales and margins in the US.
Also announcing figures is Antofagasta, with the miner's full-year results set to be particularly interesting considering last month's surprise resignation of boss Marcelo Awad. However, at the same time as revealing the departure of Mr Awad, who is being temporarily replaced by the chairman, Jean-Paul Luksic, the digger moved to quell investors' fears by saying it was on track to meet forecasts.
Results/Updates: Antofagasta, Close Brothers, Computacenter, Futura Medical, G4S, IG Group, Inchcape, Prudential and Standard Life.
Wednesday
Marston's announces a first-half update on Wednesday, and Douglas Jack of Numis Securities, one of the pubs group's joint brokers, believes the market will be able to toast a positive trading performance from its tenanted and leased sites as well as its managed division. Mr Jack is expecting the firm to see like-for-like sales rise 1.5 per cent over the full year, but he does point out that he is more bullish than most in the City.
Results/Updates: CVS Group, Ferrexpo, French Connection, Greggs, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Legal & General, Marston's, Mecom, SIG, Smiths Group, SOCO International, Tullow Oil and Yule Catto.
Thursday
It is the turn of Home Retail to update the market on Thursday, although Panmure Gordon's Philip Dorgan notes that the fact that the retailer is only revealing figures for the first eight weeks of 2012 ahead of its full-year results in May means the numbers will be "both more difficult to predict and less meaningful".
He adds that, with last year's VAT rise now annualised, both the group's Argos and Homebase chains should see an improvement from the 8.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent decline in like-for-like sales they suffered respectively over the previous 18 weeks.
Legal & General is expected to reveal by far the highest dividend raise in the sector, with Nomura predicting that the insurer will unveil a 26 per cent increase. The broker believes the main focus will the group's cash generation, forecasting an 8 per cent rise in its net cash to £822m, which would be "strong results in a difficult environment".
Results/Updates: Aegis, F&C Asset Management, Home Retail, Investec, Playtech, Premier Farnell, Savills, Spirit Pub Company, Trinity Mirror and TT Electronics.
Friday
The week is brought to an end with EMIS announcing its annual results, and the healthcare group is expected to announce revenues of £73.1m. When the AIM-listed firm updated the market in January it said that more than 200 GP practices had started using its EMIS Web software over the second half of 2011, so the latest on its roll-out plans will be closely watched.Results/Updates: EMIS.
Economics Diary
TODAY Current account; US Treasury budget statement.
TOMORROW RICS housing market survey; Trade balance; US business inventories; US FOMC interest rate decision; US retail sales.
WEDNESDAY Claimant count change; Eurozone CPI; Eurozone industrial production; Unemployment rate; US current account; US import prices; US MBA mortgage applications.
THURSDAY European Central Bank monthly bulletin; US PPI;US unemployment claims.
FRIDAY CBI industrial order expectations; Eurozone flash manufacturing PMI; Eurozone flash services PMI; US CPI; US industrial production.
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 News in pictures
- 3 Leveson threatened to quit after public attack by Gove
- 4 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 5 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 6 Ed Miliband: 'Cameron is the last gasp of the old guard'
- 7 Savers start a 'jog' on Europe's banks as Greece votes
- 8 For whom the bell tolls: £20m 'Memo' project takes shape on Dorset's Jurassic coast
- 9 Still standing: George Galloway reveals why his staunchly Leftist outlook is still invariably right
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 Patrick Cockburn: Greece's day of reckoning dawns in a climate of anger and uncertainty
- 3 The Blagger's Guide To: The best (and worst) fathers
- 4 We just click: How Lego keeps building on its success
- 5 Revealed: Harry Potter is the Antichrist!
- 6 The Leveson Inquiry: We're in this together!
- 7 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 8 David Flatman: Over and out
- 9 Frank Zimmerman and me: The truth about the troll who tormented Louise Mensch
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness

Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.

Win a sumptuous three-night stay in Austria
Get away from it all in the fresh mountain air at the four-star Hotel Edelweiss & Gurgl.

Win a five-star foodie weekend to Liège
Spend two nights in gourmet heaven at a top hotel in the capital of French-speaking Belgium.

A home to be proud of with Halifax
Download the Halifax's brilliant, free new Home Finder app, and take all the pain out of finding your dream home

Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.

Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page

Still standing: George Galloway

Daniel Radcliffe as drug-taking Beatnik poet

Objets czar: David Usborne’s collection of myriad objects

World's richest woman: Gina Rinehart

Comments