Wednesday preview: Sainsbury, Game

14th Jun 2011 15:47

Hot on the heels of sector leader Tesco's underwhelming first quarter trading update, supermarket group J. Sainsbury is set to update the market on Wednesday.Broker Nomura Securities is expecting a "solid" update, with like-for-like (LFL) sales growth, excluding fuel but including value added tax (VAT) of 2.3% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 11 June."Having been on the 'receiving end' of extensions contained within competitors' LFLs in recent years, we expect Sainsbury's LFL to include a c.100bp [one percentage point] benefit from extensions (110bps in Q4), c.60bps more than Tesco presently. We also expect fuel to boost the reported inc-fuel LFL by 2.9% to 5.1% with an assumption that Sainsbury has grown fuel volumes by a mid-single digit percentage," the Japanese broker said."We expect the space impact on sales (Q1 forecast +2.5%) to be little changed from Q4's +2.6%, although we remain concerned with respect to a year-one sales impact/ gross space ratio we estimate to be c.50%, excluding the impact of extensions," the broker added.Shares in video games retailer Game Group have halved over the last year so shareholders will be hoping for some cheer from the interim management statement, but Numis Securities thinks they will be disappointed.In the 12 weeks to 23 April, total sales were down by 14.3% and like-for-like sales by 12.1%, though Game said it was still outperforming the market. Numis thinks that outperformance will be small consolation for a retailer operating in a tough environment."Worldwide sales of Nintendo 3DS have clearly been lower than planned, and we think that Game will struggle to widen the outperformance gap in an overall market expected to remain in negative territory," the broker said.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEStarvestINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEAI Claims Solutions, Alternative Networks, Gooch & Housego, Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 1, Manroy, RWS HoldingsQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATECanaccord Financial Inc., Canadian General Investments Ltd.INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSCapacity Utilisation (US) (16:15)Consumer Price Index (US) (13:30)Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)Harmonised Competitiveness Indicators (EU) (09:00)Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)Industrial Production (US) (16:15)MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)FINALSSutton Harbour Holdings, VictoriaANNUAL REPORTElectrocomponentsIMSSMouchel GroupAGMSAlexander Mining, Bank of Ireland, BATM Advanced Communications Ltd., Christie Group, Dexion Absolute Ltd. EUR Shares, Dexion Absolute Ltd. GBP Shares, Dexion Absolute Ltd. USD Shares, Dexion Equity Alternative Ltd., Dexion Trading Ltd., Family Shariah Fund Ltd. (DI), Faroe Petroleum, Game Group, Graphite Enterprise Trust, Green Dragon Gas Ltd. (DI), Hampden Underwriting, JSC Bank of Georgia GDR (Reg S), Landore Resources Ltd., Networkers International, Puricore, PXP Vietnam Fund Ltd., VernalisTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSSainsbury (J)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATECentrica, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp., Morrison (Wm) SupermarketsFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE3i Infrastructure, Acal, Aegis Group, Alliance Pharma, Amiad Filtration Systems Ltd., Ashley (Laura) Holding, Brulines Group, Charles Stanley Group, Downing Planned Exit VCT 2 'C' Shares, Downing Planned Exit VCT 3 'C' Shares, Edinburgh Inv Trust, Elektron, Hamworthy, JPMorgan European Smaller Companies Trust , KCOM Group, Octopus Apollo VCT 3, Phaunos Timber Fund Ltd., Phoenix IT Group, Prezzo, Prime People, Printing.com, Speedy Hire, Tex Holdings, Tribal Group, Value and Income Trust, Walker Crips GroupQ1European Goldfields Ltd., Graphite Enterprise Trust--jh