Tuesday preview: BP, ARM, Reckitt Benckiser

26th Oct 2009 15:06

Oil giant BP kicks off the oil majors results season on Tuesday with third quarter figures, where net income is set to tumble to just over $3bn, analysts predict, from $8.9bn in the third quarter last year. Despite recovering throughout the year, oil prices are still not at the inflated levels seen last year, while gas prices have remained weak.Barclays Capital reckons production volumes will have risen by 4.8% year on year from the third quarter, as the company has not had to deal with hurricane-related interruptions this time around.Speculation about the company's ability to finance its capital expenditure programme while maintaining its dividend payments continues to abound, but the third quarter dividend is widely expected to be held at $0.14.Computer chip designer ARM also issues third quarter figures tomorrow. The picture in the second quarter was downbeat, with both revenue and profits tumbling in dollar terms year on year. Panmure Gordon expects US dollar revenue to have grown 12% in the third quarter from a year earlier. Household goods provider Reckitt Benckiser has had a relatively good recession. Back in July the detergent group posted profits and dividends up by a third and raised its full year estimates for both sales and earnings growth. If consumers did not turn away from branded goods such as Dettol, Vanish, Finish and Steradent in the depths of the recession they are unlikely to have turned to own-brand goods in the third quarter as optimism about the economy returned. As a result, UBS is forecasting year on year like for like sales growth of 6.1% for the third quarter.INTERIMSBraemar Shipping ServicesINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEDevelopment Securities, Liberty International, Management Consulting Group, Quarto GroupAGMSeXpansys, JPMOrgan Overseas Investment Trust, Murray Income Trust, Savile GroupFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEPenna ConsultingQUARTERLY RESULTSArm, BP, Reckitt BenckiserUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSCBI Distributive Trades Survey (11:00)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSConsumer Confidence (US) (14:00)Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (US) (14:00)Business Survey Overall Demand (FRA) (7:45)Consumer Confidence Indicator (FRA) (7.50)M3 (EC) (9:00)Retail Sales (JPN)