Thursday preview: UK GDP, Antofagasta results eyed

12th Aug 2026 13:31

(Sharecast News) - The UK corporate calendar will get a little busier on Thursday, with full-year results from Grosvenor Casinos owner Rank Group and first-half results from Chilean copper miner Antofagasta, Ladbrokes owner Entain and Savills.

Half-year results are also due from Costain and PensionBee, while shipping giant Maersk will release second-quarter numbers.

In the US, Applied Materials and Coach and Kate Spade owner Tapestry are slated to report quarterly results.

On the macro front, investors will watch for the latest UK GDP, industrial production, manufacturing production and trade balance figures, as well as eurozone industrial production data.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said the UK GDP data will be a good test of economic strength ahead of the new chancellor's Budget in October.

"The market expects quarterly growth to rise 0.4%, down from the 0.6% rate in Q1," she said. "The UK economy has a bias towards stronger first half growth, before weakening in the second half of the year, so the chancellor may not want to base his decisions for tax and spend on Q2 data alone.

"The June GDP print is expected to be disappointing, a reading of -0.1% is expected, suggesting that there was no 'World Cup' effect at the start of the football tournament. It will be worth seeing how the intense heatwave in June impacted growth, especially since the heat has not eased significantly since then."