COULD BANK CHANCE A SECOND HELPING?
This month's quarter point interest rate rise was expected and raised few serious protests. Next week will show whether the Bank of England wants more.

The monetary policy committee reveals its latest decision on Thursday. Will it deal borrowers a second blow with a further rise from 3.75% to 4%?

The City believes the MPC will stay its hand - for now. But further hikes early in 2004 are a strong possibility.

Good news on both the manufacturing and service sectors has come from recent monthly indices from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

CIPS has reported a stronger recovery than many had anticipated, with growth accelerating in recent months.

Its latest index for manufacturing, due Monday and for services on Wednesday will show if the rate rise slowed or even reversed progress this month.

Reports suggest some high street names have already begun deep discounting as fears of a lean Christmas mount.

The Confederation of British Industry's latest distributive trades survey, due Wednesday, may allay some concerns. Last month it reported retail sales growing at their fastest for 18 months.

Clothing sales, which have missed out on the boom due to a mild autumn, may now pick up as the thermometer drops.

Sage's focus proves wise

Whilst many of its peers suffered swift relegation, tech stock SageGroup has retained its blue chip FTSE 100 status.

Its focus on selling to small and medium-sized companies has served it well in tough times. Since July, Sage has spent 187m on three major acquisitions.

Full-year results on Tuesday aren't likely to surprise - last month Sage primed the City to expect revenue up 4% to 560m and pre-tax profits of 151m.

Scottish & Newcastle's first-half results on Tuesday will be dominated by last month's 2.5bn sale of its pubs and restaurants business to Spirit.

The brewer caught a cold in Russia this summer where cool weather dented sales of its Baltic Beverages subsidiary.

But chairman Sir Brian Stewart has said the record-breaking temperatures closer to home mean the figures will meet with the City's expectations.

It's a week for big names in the drinks sector. Pubs and bars group Mitchells & Butlers' maiden results are on Thursday after its Six Continents spin-off.

The shares had a bumpy debut in April but recent plans to return 500m to shareholders got a warmer response.

Wolves & Dudley Breweries issues full year figures a day earlier. The group, which fended off a bid attempt, is another which enjoyed a strong summer.

Also reporting this week...

Investors in engineering firm WS Atkins will hope for better first-half figures on Tuesday, after a 61.6m pre-tax loss for the year to March 2003.

Finals the same day from catering giant Compass are expected to show like-for-like revenues up 6% and pre-tax profits well up on last year's 382m.

Contract wins from major supermarket groups are likely to fatten interim figures from Robert Wiseman Dairies.

MONDAY December 1

Finals: Dawson Holdings, Richmond Foods.

Interims: Acal, Belhaven Group, Berkeley Berry Birch, BSS Group, BTG, Christian Salvesen, VOP.

CBI service sector survey. CIPS report on manufacturing sector.

TUESDAY December 2

Finals: Cobra Bio-Manufacturing, Compass, Gooch & Housego, Landround, Sage Group, Shaftesbury, Synstar, Ultraframe.

Interims: WS Atkins, Creston, Focus Solutions, Merant, Protherics, Robert Wiseman, Scottish & Newcastle, Warner Estates.

Trading updates: Barclays, Fibernet.

WEDNESDAY December 3

Finals: De Vere Group, ScS Upholstery, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries.

Interims: Chapelthorpe, Expro International, RPC Group, United Utilities, Wagon.

Bank of England monetary policy committee meets. Confederation of British Industry distributive trades survey. CIPS report on service sector. UK official reserves (Nov).

THURSDAY December 4

Finals: Avon Rubber, Deltron Electronics, Dewhurst, Holidaybreak, Mitchells & Butlers, OMG, Securicor, Widney.

Interims: AEA Technology, AWG, Dyson Group, Findel, JZ Equity Partners, Kelda.

Trading update: Premier Farnell (Q3).

British Retail Consortium shop price index (Nov).

FRIDAY December 5

Interims: Arla Foods UK, Berkeley Group, Bristol Water Holdings, Park Group.