Friday preview: RBS, IAG, US non-farm payrolls

5th May 2011 18:34

After Lloyds Banking dropped a bombshell by making a £3.2bn provision in case it has to pay compensation to customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), the first quarter trading update from the UK's other state-owned bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), will be awaited with a certain amount of trepidation.Nomura Securities is forecasting profit before tax of £546m, versus a loss of £21m in the first quarter of 2010. With non-operating items stripped out, it thinks the group made £1.3bn of profits before tax, up from £713m a year earlier, thanks largely to a lower level of impairment charges. Nomura estimates impairment charges will be 37% lower than they were in the first quarter of last year, but that prediction was made before Lloyds' trading update. Not that RBS will have had time to make any adjustments to its figures in reaction to Lloyds' announcement, but it does show the scope for extreme volatility in the impairment charges.International Consolidated Airlines Group, the company formed by the merger of British Airways and Iberia airlines, and mercifully known by the shorter appellation IAG, is set to make its first quarterly trading update on Friday, covering the first three months of the year.It was a quarter in which civil unrest and natural disasters in various parts of the world had an effect on air travel demand, though not to the same extent for IAG as for some other airlines. Furthermore, the comparative period - the first quarter of 2010 - was characterised by industrial strife, at least for British Airways, so RBS Hoare Govett is forecasting a narrowing of the operating loss this time round to €146m from €237m. Loss before tax is seen shrinking to €199m from €273m last year. On the other side of the pond, all eyes will be on the US non-farm payrolls data, the first big economic indicator to be released covering the month of April. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said total non-farm payrolls are expected to rise by 175,000, while private sector payrolls are forecast to rise 190,000. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 8.8%. INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBegbies Traynor Group, Kier Group, Octopus Eclipse VCT 1, Octopus Eclipse VCT 3, Octopus Eclipse VCT 4, Photo-Me International, Telefonica SAQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEInvestors Capital Trust 'A' SharesUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSProducer Prices - April (09:30)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSIndustrial Production (GER) (11:00)Non-farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)Unemployment Rate (US) (13:30)GMSLombard Medical TechnologiesIMSSForth Ports, IMI, RPS Group, IAG, Royal Bank of ScotlandAGMSAdmiral Group, Aer Lingus Group, Arena Leisure, Cobham, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company SA, Colgate-Palmolive Co, Fidessa Group, Forth Ports, IMI, JPMorgan American Inv Trust, Laird, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Rolls-Royce Group, RPS Group, Smurfit Kappa Group, STM GroupFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBodycote, Devro, Dialight, Foresight 2 VCT, Foresight 2 VCT 'C' Shares, Holidaybreak, Meggitt, Microgen, Nichols, Parkwood Holdings, Pearson, Rotork, Tikit GroupQ1Hellenic Telecom Industries SA ADS, Lancashire Holdings, Smurfit Kappa Group---jh