Tuesday preview: Tesco, Glencore, Carphone Warehouse

13th Jun 2011 17:37

Warm weather and a string of bank holidays recently has been good news for many consumer-facing companies lately and the broker Panmure Gordon expects supermarket giant Tesco to report a return to like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in the UK in the first quarter. "Food sales will have been helped by the decent weather, whereas we expect non-food to continue to be a drag," the broker says, pointing to the sharp fall in sales recently reported at Home Retail's high street chain Argos. It expects Tesco to see flat like-for-like sales in Europe, a 2.5% rise in Asia and double-digit growth in the US.Broker Matrix is also expecting Tesco's UK LFL sales growth to move into positive territory, but only just, once one discounts the boost from the increase in value added tax (VAT)."Kantar data suggest that the first half of the period was poor, with negative LFLs, but that sales have picked up since. Kantar data for Tesco for the four weeks to 17 April suggest 3.5% total UK sales growth, rising to 9.3% for the four weeks to mid-May. Quite how long-lived the effects of the May data will be remains to be seen, but we suspect that with the end of the weather/wedding boost and the raft of bank holidays, the next month's data will slip back. On the evidence to date, we expect the key figure of UK sales growth to come in at +0.5%, which is like-for-like sales growth, excluding petrol and excluding the VAT benefit, i.e., showing the underlying growth. Tesco's headline measure will include VAT, so would be 1.5% on our forecasts," the broker said."We expect International sales growth to be in the low double digits. While there should be continued positive LFL sales growth across the main areas of Eastern Europe and the Far East, we remain sceptical as to the company's 2013 breakeven target for the US. Strong double-digit LFL growth, especially from a very low base, is the minimum required to achieve that target," Matrix believes.Commodity trading giant Glencore had a reputation for secrecy ahead of its London listing, but investors will get a glimpse into the workings of the company when its first interim management statement is issued on Tuesday. Mobile phones seller Carphone Warehouse has raised its earnings guidance for fiscal 2010/11 after having a quick tot up of the fourth quarter numbers. The company now expects full year earnings per share will be in the range of 14.5p to 15p, up from previous guidance of 13.5p to 14.0p. Prior to the change to the earnings guidance, market consensus for earnings per share in the year to 31 March 2011 was 14.19p. All will be revealed in its preliminary results. INTERIMS ATH Resources, IDOX, Interbulk Group, Pressure Technologies, Pursuit Dynamics INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Business Inventories (US) (13:30) Manufacturing Inventories (US) (15:00) Producer Price Index (US) (13:30) Retail Sales (US) (13:45) Retail Sales Inventories (US) (15:15) FINALS Bango, Carphone Warehouse Group, CML Microsystems, Oxford Instruments, Park Group, Polar Capital Holdings, Record IMSS Air Partner, Glencore International AGMS Afferro Mining Inc , Aseana Properties Ltd., BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust, European Islamic Investment Bank, Fortune Oil, Nationwide Accident Repair Services, NMBZ Holdings (UK), Premier Farnell, REA Holdings, Ted Baker, ViCTory VCT UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Consumer Price Index (09:30) Retail Price Index (09:30) RICS Housing Market Survey (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Inchcape, Persimmon, Powerflute Oyj (DI)