A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

A busy week this week with plenty to keep traders on their toes. A goodly amount of boardroom wrangling and shareholder pressure is anticipated with Vodafone, Scottish Power and BP in the forefront. On Monday, hygiene products group Reckitt Benckiser is expected to unveil interim pre-tax profits of 161m, before one-off costs, up more than 12%. It has been boosted by strong sales in the US and Europe. Amongst pharmaceutical companies, on Wednesday GlaxoSmithKline is likely to report a 6% rise in Q2, boosted by strong vaccines. The following day, rival AstraZeneca is expected to reveal sales up 7%. AZN shares are expected to be particularly buoyant after the company said at the weekend that it had won US approval for its asthma drug Symbicort. On Friday, Shire Pharma will update us on Q2 performance, with investors keen for news on US regulatory approval for its potential blockbuter, Elaprase. Thursday also sees British American Tobacco in the spotlight, with analysts expecting the group to reveal a 12% profit rise to 1.44bn in the first half, primarily due to strong business in emerging markets. Oil majors will be putting their spin on the week, with BG Group reporting interim results on Monday, followed by BP on Tuesday, which is seen likely to report a fall in production of around 2%. Improving profits from its US refining business should help push underlying net profits ahead 10% to $5.98bn. On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell is expected to reveal a 5% year-on-year fall in production volumes, although this will be offset by the higher oil price. Shell's income for the quarter is expected to be $6.27bn, compared to $5.49bn in the same period last year. BSkyB, which last week announced its foray into the broadband market, is forecast to publish a pre-tax profit of 806m, compared with 757m in 2005 when it reveals all on Friday. That result has been driven by revenue growth and an improvement in operating margins. Other companies seeking attention this week include Domino's Pizza and Yell on Tuesday; Reuters and Northern Roack on Wednesday; Centrica and Amvescap on Thursday with Prudential on Friday. With so much corporate news to hit the wires this week, the trick will be to pick out the gems that are going to turn a good profit, whilst avoiding data overload. Take care out there! Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

cheers Alan,

Have a good week.

I think I will phone TDW in the morning and ask them to execute a buy order for 1 share of every stock in the UK100 before my commision free trading period comes to an end. Could be handy for entry to AGMs/EGM's.....

Mike, have you got a list of the current 100 constituents in case the broker want me to list them all?

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning down 37.49 points at 16,426.69, while the Nikkei was recently down 51.29 points at 14,769.97.

New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, was at $74.31 a barrel, down from $74.43 in late US trades Friday.

Early broker notes:

BURREN ENERGY INITIATED 'BUY' AT DEUTSCHE BANK; PRICE TARGET 1035P
PREMIER OIL INITIATED 'BUY' AT DEUTSCHE BANK; PRICE TARGET 1300P
CAIRN ENERGY INITIATED 'HOLD' AT DEUTSCHE BANK; PRICE TARGET 2,260P
VENTURE PRODUCTION INITIATED 'HOLD' AT DEUTSCHE BANK; PRICE TARGET 775P
JKX OIL INITIATED 'BUY' AT DEUTSCHE BANK; PRICE TARGET 385P

Happy trading!

G.

Morning all.

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