Thursday preview: IMI hoping for a strong second half

21st Aug 2013 15:01

Engineering firm IMI will hope that its impressive share-price- performance will continue on Thursday when it reports its first-half results.The company, which is focused on the control and movement of fluids in critical applications, has seen its stock rise a solid 28% since the start of 2013, representing +50% growth over the last 12 months.IMI's performance was in line with expectations over the first four months of the year, according to the company's last trading update in May. It said that group revenues were down 1.0% over that period, though it did express confidence in delivering "progress" over the full year."We recognise that the group's FY results are likely to be slightly more 2H-weighted than 'normal', but we feel this has already been well flagged," said analysts at Jefferies earlier this week. Therefore, the comments on outlook are likely to be closely watched.Company-compiled consensus estimates point to a group turnover of £1,090m during the first six months ended June 30th, unchanged from last year. Normalised EBIT meanwhile is expected to grow 2.0% to £184.1m. Analysts are looking for an adjusted basic EPS of 40p, down 1.0% on last year.A number of other industrial/mining stocks are due to report their interim results on Thursday, including Carillion, Costain, Kazkahmys, London Mining and New World Resources.Economic data will also be in focus on Thursday, starting off with a few purchasing managers' indices (PMI) due out in the Eurozone. The main composite PMI for the single-currency region, which measures combined activity in both the manufacturing and services sectors, is expected to rise from 50.5 to 50.9 in August as growth begins to accelerate across the continent, albeit still at a subdued pace - any figure above 50 marks growth.Over in the States, we'll see the initial weekly jobless claims figure out before the opening bell on Wall Street. Claims for unemployment benefits are expected to have risen slightly to 330,000 in the week ended August 17th, though that's only a 10,000 increase from the week before which saw claims fall to their lowest point since 2007.Figures showing house prices in June as well as the composite index on leading indicators for July are also on the calendar in the afternoon.Thursday August 22INTERIMSCarillion, Costain Group, CPP Group, IMI, Kazakhmys, London Capital Group Holdings, London Mining, New World Resources A Shares, Premier Oil, Primary Health Properties, Sportech, Wentworth Resources Ltd (DI)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPurchasing Managers' Index Composite (EU) (09:00)Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)House Price Index (US) (15:00)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)Leading Indicators (US) (15:00)Q2Bridge Energy Asa, Wentworth Resources Ltd (DI)SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAberforth Geared Income TrustAGMSOryx International Growth Fund Ltd., Praetorian Resources LtdBC