A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

In a week bereft of company results, events will be overshadowed by two big flotations as Standard Life lists Monday and Russian oil giant, Rosneft comes to the market Friday. The pricing for Standard Life's shares was set at 230p late last week, at the lower end of original expectations, giving it a market capitalisation of around 4.65bn. The company said there had been "significant over-subscription" for the float. Its 2.4 million eligible members will receive shares worth an average of 1,475 each, with a minimum payout of 425. With institutions expected to mop up as many shares as they can to make up for the shortage available under the terms of the flotation, brisk business is anticipated. The London Stock Exchange will hold its shareholder meeting on Wednesday, when it is likely to be upbeat about trading activity. It may also comment on the spate of consolidations among global bourses and on its rebuff of potential partners such as rival Nasdaq and Macquarie Bank. On Wednesday 3i may be under pressure to talk about future deals at its AGM after it walked away from a bid for AB Ports last month. Charles Stanley's Mr Batstone believes 3i is likely to be gearing up for another round of investments. On the same day, GUS, which last week revealed it had knocked back separate offers for both its Argos business and its credit group Experian, will update the market. The City will be keen to find out which companies have approached GUS and how much they were prepared to offer, though few are expecting the management to say much. Trading at Homebase stores is expected to have been tough, while sales at Argos are tipped as being from flat to slightly negative in tight conditions. Former GUS star, Burberry, is expected to reveal that Q1 sales have jumped 10% to 125m. BT holds its AGM this week. It is expected to re-state its confidence in its ability to weather intense competition in the broadband arena from the likes of Carphone Warehouse. Investors will also be looking for confirmation that BT is on track to carve out 1bn in cost savings to help it produce an annual pre-tax profit of 2.37bn, up from 2.04bn. Other companies in the limelight this week include Anite and Inter Link Foods on Tuesday; Avocet Mining on Wednesday; Salvesen on Thursday with Symphony Plastics on Friday. On the face of it, a quiet week ahead, but there are always a few surprises to keep things bubbling along. Supermum is taking a break for a few weeks but will return with her Weekly Chart View later in the Summer. Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

cheers Alan.

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 67.98 points at 16,527.76, while the Nikkei was recently up 113.09 points at 15,420.7.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, was at $73.70 a barrel, down 39 cents from $74.09 in late US trading Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

Good morning all.

Where do you guys see NLR going from here.?

Seems like an easy buy-back for NLR, the way that the PI's are selling off today.
Surely due a big bounce soon. ( I hope. Gulp.!! )

End-of-day Market Summary