Thursday preview: Busy day of earnings await with flood of FTSE 350 interims

29th Jul 2015 15:48

(ShareCast News) - Investors will on Thursday be snowed under with earnings from a batch of FTSE 350 companies.Astrazeneca, Weir Group and Royal Dutch Shell will be among those reporting.Shell will be hoping to outperform BP in its second quarter results. BP on Tuesday reported a 64% drop in quarterly profits, reflecting the low oil price and the continued fallout from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Similarly, Shell's earnings will be affected by the slump in the oil sector.As will engineer Weir Group, with Numis predicting pre-tax profit of £125m in the second quarter, down from £182m the previous year."Oil and gas will inevitably be the focus, particularly given the warnings earlier in the year from this avenue," said Numis analyst David Larkam."The oil and gas business accounted for 46% of group earnings before interest and tax in 2014."Atrazeneca's second quarter results come three days after announcing it was selling its thyroid cancer drug Caprelsa to Genzyme, a unit of rival French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, for $300m. However, the sale is expected to complete in the second half and won't affect the second quarter earnings."We expect 2Q product sales to decline by 13% yoy (-5% CER) impacted by an 8% FX headwind and Nexium generic erosion," said Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkes. "Overall revenues and profits will be cushioned by recognition of a $450m upfront payment from Celgene and the beginnings of materialisation of S,G&A cost savings. We expect 2Q reported revenues and Core EPS to decline by 9% (1% CER) and 18% (11% CER), to $6.1bn and $1.06 respectively."Following the earnings session, the focus will turn to US gross domestic product in afternoon trade. Analysts predicted GDP grew an annualised 2.5% in the second quarter, following a 0.2% dip a month earlier. Thursday 30 July INTERIMS AstraZeneca, BAE Systems, Centaur Media, Centrica, Communisis, Countrywide, Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. (Singapore), Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI), Henderson Group, Hongkong Land Holding Ltd. (Sing.Reg), Inchcape, InterContinental Hotels Group, Intu Properties, Laird, Mandarin Oriental International (Singapore), Merlin Entertainments , Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Moneysupermarket.com Group, PJSC Megafon GDR (Reg S), Rentokil Initial, Rexam, Robert Walters, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, RPS Group, Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting), Smith & Nephew, Spectris, Weir Group INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund Ltd (DI), Entu (UK) , Fenner, Frenkel Topping Group, Maven Income & Growth 3 VCT, Maven Income and Growth VCT 5, Nichols, Porvair QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE City of London Inv Trust, SQN Asset Finance Income Fund Limited INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Business Climate Indicator (EU) (10:00) Continuing Claims (US) (13:30) ECB Report (EU) (09:00) Economic Sentiment Indicator (EU) (10:00) GDP (Advance) (US) (13:30) Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30) Unemployment Rate (GER) (08:55) Q2 AstraZeneca, PJSC Megafon GDR (Reg S), Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (ATT) GDR (Reg S), Smith & Nephew Q3 Thomas Cook Group GMS NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited Red FINALS Victoria IMSS Halfords Group SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Redde EGMS Societatea Nationala De Gaze Naturale Romgaz S.A. GDR (Reg S) AGMS Argo Group Ltd., B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI), Babcock International Group, Bonmarche Holdings, Caffyns, Elektron Technology, Halfords Group, Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 2, IS Solutions, Pennon Group, SerVision TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Countrywide FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Caffyns, Mckay Securities FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE Bilby, Investec, TechFinancials (DI), UK Mail Group