Thursday preview: Cobham, Smith & Nephew, UK election

5th May 2010 17:14

Thursday is the date of the general election in the UK and also a busy day for company announcements, with heavy hitters such as Cobham, Morrisons, RSA Insurance, Schroders, Smith & Nephew and Vedanta releasing trading updates.The futures markets in bonds and sterling will be up and running overnight to enable traders to react to the exit polls and the first result which, if history is any guide, will come through at about 10:45pm from somewhere in Sunderland.Defence group Cobham will have more than a passing interest in which party or parties form the next government as it will have a bearing on UK defence spending though, as Execution Noble notes, the company is less exposed to the UK market than sector peer BAE Systems.Medical devices firm Smith & Nephew is set to release first quarter figures.Charles Stanley is predicting earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of $220m, up from $183m in the first quarter of 2009. Group sales are tipped to advance to $980m from $865m a year earlier, a 14% increase "of which about 5.5% may have been derived from favourable FX [foreign exchange] movements."Fund manager Schroders is also set to make a first quarter update. Numis Securities is predicting the group's assets under management will hit £172bn this year and expects the first quarter update will demonstrate the group is making progress towards this target.The service sector activity purchasing manager's index (PMI) for April is due out at 9:30am.The index is expected to rise to 57.0 from 56.5, comfortably above the 50.0 level which indicates no change in activity and the second highest level since August 2007.INTERIMSAllied Healthcare International, Minorplanet SystemsINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATETelefonica SAINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Trade (AUS) (00:00)BoJ Intrest Rates Minutes (JPN) (23:50)Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)Factory Orders (GER) (11:00)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)Unit Labour Costs (US) (13:30)Leading Indicator Index (JPN) (05:00)Retail Sales (AUS) (00:00)Non-farm Productivity (US) (13:30)GMSVentus 3 VCTFINALSVedanta ResourcesIMSSArriva, Cobham, Computacenter, Mondi, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Resolution, Restaurant Group, Rexam, RSA Insurance Group, Schroders, Schroders NV, Tomkins, Yule CattoAGMSArriva, Atlantic Global, Bovis Homes Group, Brit Insurance Holdings NV, Catlin Group, Cobham, Costain Group, Devro, F&C Inv Trust, Fisher (James) & Sons, GKN, GlaxoSmithKline, Grafton Group (Units), Hygea VCT, Inditherm, Jardine Matheson (Singapore), Jardine Strategic (Singapore), Lloyds Banking Group, Mondi, Morgan Sindall, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Restaurant Group, Rexam, Schroders, Schroders NV, Smith & Nephew, Sweet China, Yule CattoUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSOfficial Reserves (09:30)PMI Service Sector Survey (9.30)UK General Election Results (23:00)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBritish American Tobacco, Davis Service Group, First Quantum Minerals, JPMorgan American Inv Trust, Lavendon Group, Logica, SEGRO, Spirent CommunicationsQ1Endeavour International Corp, RSA Insurance Group, Smith & Nephew, Talvivaara Mining Company