Tuesday preview: Persimmon, Marshalls

4th Jul 2011 18:14

House builder Persimmon is expected to "echo the sentiments issued by Taylor Wimpey last week, and confirm that whilst the market remains challenging, conditions since the start of the year have been broadly stable," according to Panmure Gordon. Paving slab firm Marshalls has been sloping steadily downwards since the start of May, and not even a fairly upbeat trading statement on May 11 could reverse the momentum.At that time the company said revenue for the four months ended 30 April 2011 increased by 10% to £113m from £103m in the corresponding period of last year, but cautioned that market uncertainty remained.In the company's pre-close trading statement, broker Panmure Gordon will be looking to see whether the strong momentum of the early months has been maintained, "and in particular what the divisional performance has been in the weeks since.""During the first four months, Public Sector and Commercial sales increased by 12% which we would imagine represented a strong performance from the commercialoperations. The group have commented that the outlook for this business is mildlypositive, which we believe means that commercial is likely to continue to offset weakness within Public sector markets," the broker deduced."In the Domestic market, sales increased by 7% in the first four month with the order book running at 7.1 weeks - a pretty normal workload. The group have commented that this market appears to be fairly resilient, albeit at relatively low levels of volume," Panmure Gordon added. INTERIMSLow & Bonar, St. Modwen PropertiesINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEVictrexINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Services (FRA) (08:50)PMI Composite (GER) (08:55)PMI Services (GER) (08:55)PMI Composite (EU) (09:00)PMI Services (EU) (09:00)Factory Orders (US) (15:00)Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)GMSAggrekoFINALSHarvard InternationalIMSSBrown (N.) GroupEGMSLandore Resources Ltd.AGMSBlackrock Hedge Selector Ltd. Red Part Shs (UK Emerging Co Shs), Brown (N.) Group, Capital Gearing Trust, JPMorgan Income & Capital Inv Trust, JPMorgan Income & Capital Inv Trust Units, Shires IncomeUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSOfficial Reserves (09:30)PMI Services (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBalfour Beatty, Brammer, French Connection Group, Rolls-Royce GroupTRADING STATEMENTSInterserve, Marshalls, Persimmon--jh