A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

There will be an air of expectation ahead of VT Group's annual results on Tuesday. The shipbuilding and support services company has been in talks for months with BAE Systems about the creation of a new shipbuilding joint venture. However, it is understood that they cannot announce the deal until the Government gives the final okay for two new aircraft carriers. CEO, Paul Lester, is expected to unveil a strong set of numbers, with consensus pre-tax profit figures predicted at 73m, up from 61m the year before. None of this week's earnings announcements will be more eagerly awaited than J Sainsbury's on Wednesday. Since the supermarket giant saw off private equity predators last month, speculation has been rife about what management will do to appease shareholders. Three Delta, the property fund backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, has rapidly built up a 17.4% stake in the company since news of a possible takeover first broke. A share buyback is an option. UBS said in a note: "We continue to believe that there are opportunities under public ownership to increase the financial leverage of the company." Analysts expect Sainsbury's to report pre-tax profits of 369m. The London Stock Exchange will reveal its annual performance on Wednesday. Analysts are predicting a good showing, with pre-tax profits expected to come in at 167m, up from 93.5m last year. Spurned suitor Nasdaq still holds 30% of LSE's shares and harbours desires for a tie-up. The American exchange is understood to have begun sniffing around elsewhere for merger partners, though it its not likely to let go of its stake in the London bourse any time soon. On the same day, mining group Vedanta Resources is expected to be upbeat about its operations around the world. The miner of zinc, copper and aluminium is likely to paint a glowing picture of demand driven by the Indian economy, where it has operations. Less certain is Zambia, where political upheaval has hindered production. BT should unveil a 1.5bn share buyback programme at its annual results on Thursday. The scheme is already factored into the forecasts at Barclays, whose analysts expect few surprises from the telecoms giant. They will probably be keen to hear CEO Ben Verwaayen's view of the group's ability to compete in the retail business amid a burgeoning number of competitors. British Airways will draw plenty of attention on Friday, when it publishes its interim figures. The carrier was expected to have chosen its bidding partners for Spanish airline Iberia last week, but the late emergence of a new consortium from Spain is understood to have held up a final decision. It could well be that when Friday comes, BA CEO, Willie Walsh, will have set the ball rolling on a formal offer for Iberia. Amongst others in the spotlight this week will be Robert Wiseman and Chrysalis on Monday; Enterprise Inns on Tuesday; Compass and FirstGroup on Wednesday and National Grid and SABMiller on Thursday. Good hunting! Greystone Thanks, as always, to Supermum, Digger and Kyoto for their invaluable input to the Traders Thread (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

thanks.
the most informative thread on the net.

good sunday evening read thanks for your regular input

UPS (Added by Master RSI on Sun 13 May 06:50 pm)

SCR - Mid 6.875p
Reason - A change of direction on the chart after rising from lows lately, last Friday move up have shown a clear picture of the UPTREND. Two of their mining assets copper and molybdenum are rising again and news are expected for some time now

SCR chart on the way to UPTREND

UPS (Added by Master RSI on Sun 13 May 05:25 pm)

TIO - Mid 75.25p
Reason - Large Volume last Friday and bounce after retracement on announcing Placing at 70p. Canaccord Adams lift their NAV-based target price to 1.56 per share on 5th May, directors buying shares at placing. Spin-Off from Peter Hambro Mining doing well last 15 month

        JOKE OF THE DAY

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman,
'Was I in here last night?'

'You certainly were,' replies the barman.

'And did I spend a lot of money?'

'You spent over 100', replies the barman.

'Thank god for that,' says the man, 'I thought I'd wasted it.'

Morning all. Friday's market reports:

Telegraph
Telegraph (Bloomberg summary)
The Times
FT
The Guardian
The Independent
This is Money

Shanghai 'stir-fry' frenzy could be recipe for disaster

Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng ended the morning up 522.41 points at 20,990.62,
while the Nikkei ended the morning session up 187.02 points at 17,740.74.

New York Mercanitle Exchange's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for
delivery in June, was down 7 cents at $62.30 per barrel from $62.37 in late trading
in the US Friday.

Happy trading!

G.

NIKKEI	AUSTRALIA	SHANGHAI	HANG SENG

OUTLOOK - UK companies results for 2 weeks to May 25

Asian markets summaryAsian economic and corporate news summary

The Monday Press Roundup

*CENTRICA SAYS OVERALL MARKET OUTLOOK ENCOURAGING, BUT PRICE UNCERTAINTY REMAINS

BT.A buy - target 360 - Dresdner Kleinwort
CBRY reiterated hold - target 635 from 600 - ABN Amro
ITRK reiterated overweight - target 1050 from 950 - HSBC
LSE reiterated underweight - target 1300 from 1250 - Morgan Stanley
MPI downgraded to buy from conviction buy - Goldman Sachs
MSY downgraded to hold from buy - target 250 - Merrill Lynch
UBM reiterated buy - target 880 from 805 - Merrill Lynch
UMB initiated buy - target 220 - Panmure Gordon

Thomson Financial UK at a glance share guide

Morning all.