Thursday preview: Tesco, Balfour Beatty, BoE rate decision

12th Jan 2011 16:01

There will be no let up on Thursday from the focus on retailers with Tesco, Home Retail, Halfords, Dixons, Game and cash and carry group Booker set to report.Supermarket giant Tesco is forecast to report like for like (LFL) sales growth of 1.5%, excluding fuel and value added tax (VAT), in the final six-weeks of 2010. That would put it behind Sainsbury's performance (+3.6%) but ahead of Morrisons' (+1%), though the trading periods are not directly comparable. Views differ on whether the company is likely to have suffered from the poor weather in December. Some analysts suggest that the icy conditions will have deterred shoppers, while others reason that shoppers were forced to go out shopping over Christmas come what may, and may therefore have decided to do as much of their shopping as possible in one location - typically the hypermarket sized outlet that features prominently among Tesco's retail estate.More than its rivals, the focus of Tesco is overseas. Deutsche Bank thinks the group will see a slowing of LFL sales growth in Asia in the fourth quarter to 2.8% from 4.3% in the third quarter.Shares in infrastructure constructor Balfour Beatty are trading at a 52-week high, suggesting the company's management has not lost a lot of sleep over talk of UK government cutbacks, thanks to the group's international presence."The group hosted an investor seminar at the end of November, which highlighted the global opportunities in infrastructure markets, the flexibility of its operating model and scope to improve margins over the coming years. It also signalled a more active approach to its investments business through creation of an infrastructure fund, while also being more active with existing positions," says broker Panmure Gordon.The broker will be looking for some sort of assessment from company management of the likely effects of the government's comprehensive spending review, plus an update on the US market outlook. On the economic front, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) makes it decision on interest rates and quantitative easing. For more than a year now it has been a safe prediction to make that the status quo will be preserved, but with each passing month the chances of the MPC changing things up increases."A lively debate seems certain and a three-way split in the policy vote is once again probable. While we do not expect any change in monetary policy this week, a key factor will be whether or not the MPC are becoming more hawkish overall given more recent bad news on the inflation front. Also key will be whether or not any MPC member joins Andrew Sentance in voting for an interest rate hike," opines Dr. Howard Archer of the forecasting unit IHS Global Insight.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATECable & Wireless Communications, Mckay SecuritiesINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSCGPI (JPN) Consumer Prices (FRA) (06:30)ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)Trade Balance (US) (13:30)Producer Price Index (US) (13:30)Q4Sandvine Corp.GMSCardiff Property, ChapelthorpeFINALSSandvine Corp.IMSSBooker Group, Dixons Retail , Halfords Group, Home Retail GroupAGMSCardiff Property, Namakwa Diamonds Ltd. (DI)TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSGame Group, Premier Oil, SIG, TescoUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSHalifax House Prices Industrial Production (09:30)Manufacturing Production (09:30)BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)NIESR GDP estimate