It has been a relatively quiet week for results so far but Wednesday sees the pace picking up, with retailers Halfords and Dunelm likely to catch the eye, along with engineering consultant WS Atkins.
Home wares provider Dunelm (LON:DNLM) is to report sales for its third quarter, covering the January to March period.
Panmure Gordon is forecasting like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of 3.25%, with the top line rising 9.5% to £168.7mln. Peel Hunt goes for LFL sales growth of 2% to 3%, with further progress on growth margins.
"The weather conditions of Q3 are likely to have been neutral overall for Dunelm as while cold weather is good news for sales of home wares, settled snow clearly causes disruption and means customers are unable to get to stores. Note however that Q3 will benefit from half of Easter weekend (as opposed to none last year)," Panmure Gordon said.
For Atkins (LON:ATK), the focus is likely to be on UK and Middle East infrastructure prospects, according to Peel Hunt.
"We continue to anticipate lIMIted profit progression in FY2014 given that Atkins’ key UK and US public sector markets (c40% of revenues) are unlikely to return to growth during calendar 2013," Peel Hunt said.
The update season for recruiters continues, with Hays (LON:HAS) next to report. Oriel Securities reckons the January-March quarter will have seen a 2% decline in the top line on a constant currency basis.
Referring to the recruitment sector as a whole, Oriel said: "Near-term outlook is mixed, difficult but grinding through protracted inflexion to growth.
"Generally, we expect trading through calendar Q1 to have been challenging. The UK is subdued but could be turning from contraction to weak growth. We expect widespread weakness in Continental Europe – although Hays’s German business will continue to be a standout performer – and softness in Australia. Asia is showing growth potential beyond financial services. The Americas generally is a picture of growth."
Announcements expected
Companies: Vedanta, Dunelm, Halfords, WS Atkins, PZ Cussons, Ashmore group, Hays, Prezzo
Macroeconomic: US FOMC minutes
The following widely held stocks will go ex-dividend on Wednesday: Rotork, RPS Group, Savills, St James’s Place, Berendsen, IMI, GKN, Filtrona, Fisher (James),