Tuesday preview: British Land, Mears, UK consumer prices

17th Aug 2009 16:07

The UK property sector has recovered strongly over the last month led by British Land, which has been the subject of intense bid speculation.The company, which owns the Broadgate development in London's financial district, releases its results for the first quarter on Tuesday. The value of the company's property portfolio will be closely examined by traders looking to work out what level of bid would be required to take the company out.Social housing repairs and maintenance group Mears said back in July that it was 'not experiencing and does not anticipate a slowdown in either opportunities to grow or in public sector spending in our two primary offerings.' Such bullish talks has raised hopes that the interim results will make good reading. Broker Panmure Gordon will be looking for any signs of increased margin pressure in Social Housing, while there are also concerns that the government may be looking to cut back on its public sector spending commitments.UK consumer prices for July are due out, with the annual inflation rate expected to fall even further below the Bank of England's 2% target level. In June, the year-on-year rise in the Consumer Prices Index eased to 1.8% and economists are predicting the inflation rate will have eased some more in July to 1.5%. Inflation, as measured by the Retail Prices Index, which includes mortgage costs, is expected to remain negative with July's figure tipped to be 1.7% lower than in July 2008, after falling 1.6% in the year to June 2009.INTERIMSAmino Technologies, London Capital Group, Tribal GroupUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSConsumer Prices Index (CPI) (09:30)Core CPI (09:30)Retail Prices Index (RPI) (09:30)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBuilding Permits (US) (13:30)Housing Starts (US) (13:30)Initial Jobless Claims (US)Producer Price Index (US) (13:30)ZEW Survey Economic Sentiment (GER) (10:00)ZEW Current Situation (GER) (10:00)ZEW Survey Economic Sentiment (EU) (10:00)Nationwide Department Store Sales (JPN)AGMSBedford Row VCT, Bedford Row VCT 'C' Shares, Castings, Goldman Sachs Dynamic Opportunities GBP Shares, Serabi MiningFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEInvestecQUARTERLY RESULTSBritish Land Co