The foot comes off the pedal this week, and not just because Monday is a bank holiday.
There is a noticeable shortage of heavyweight results announcements, with Ashtead and Go-Ahead Group flying the flag for the large and medium caps.
Shareholders will be hoping Ashtead’s first quarter results will see the equipment rental firm continuing the strong momentum seen last year, on the back of the recovering US construction industry.
On the other hand, US competitor United Rentals recently sounded a note of caution in its recent trading update, and that may make Ashtead think twice about its planned capital expenditure this year of around £1bn.
Bus and trains group Go-Ahead reports full-year numbers on Thursday, having put out a reassuring update back in June.
“The bus division is expected to drive a near 20% increase in pre-tax profit to around £94.6 million on a consensus basis, accompanied by a 5% increase in the Total annual dividend payment to 89 pence per share. News regarding the group’s rail division bids for both the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises is expected in the first quarter of the new financial year,” notes Keith Bowman, at broker Hargreaves Lansdown.
At the end of the week airlines IAG and easyJet issue passenger statistics for August.
For British Airways owner IAG, the focus will be on the higher margin premium traffic, typically that of business travellers, which also saw good growth last month, according to Graham Spooner, at The Share Centre.
“While the performance of European and Latin American routes was very good previously, the US showed the slowest growth so investors may be paying particular attention to that figure to see if a trend is emerging,” he added.
As for EasyJet, Spooner thinks investors will be keen to hear if the low-cost airline’s recent strong growth in passenger traffic and load factors has continued into the main part of the summer holiday season.
“With the oil price continuing to fall the market will be looking for signs that lower fuel costs are helping boost sales and margins,” Spooner added.
Significant announcements expected
Monday
Monday is a UK bank holiday.
Final: Mortice Ltd (LON:MORT)
Economic: EU – Consumer prices index.
Tuesday
Finals: CAP-XX Ltd (LON:CPX), Punch Taverns (LON:PUB)
Interims: Globaltrans Investment (LON:GLTR), Snoozebox Holdings (LON:ZZZ), STM Group (LON:STM)
Trading statement: Diploma (LON:DPLM)
Economic: EU – Unemployment. Global – Manufacturing PMIs. UK – Mortgage approvals
Wednesday
Interims: Ashtead Group (LON:AHT), Biome Technologies (LON:BIOM), Concurrent Technologies (LON:CNC), Fishing Republic (LON:FISH), Johnson Service Group (LON:JSG)
Economic: Global – Non-manufacturing PMIs. USA – ADP employment change; Non-farm productivity; Factory orders; Fed Beige Book. EU – Producer prices
Thursday
Final: Alumasc Group (LON:ALU), CPL Resources (LON:CPS), Go-Ahead Group (The) (LON:GOG), Redde (LON:REDD)
Interims: Empresaria Group (LON:EMR), Fairpoint Group (LON:FRP), Forbidden Technologies (LON:FBT), Safestore Holdings (LON:SAFE), Total Produce (LON:TOT)
Trading statement: International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG), McColl’s Retail Group (LON:MCLS)
Economic: EU – ECB policy meeting; Retail sales. US – Weekly jobless claims; Trade balance.
Friday
Interims: EMIS Group (LON:EMIS)
Trading statement: easyJet (LON:EZJ)
Economic: US – Non-farm payrolls; Unemployment rate. EU - GDP