Tesco reports its half year results on Wednesday with a renewed flurry of excitement in the sector following Sainsbury’s results last week.
Food deflation and a highly competitive pricing environment continue to provide the backdrop, but with others outperforming, Tesco will be under pressure to prove the same.
Keith Bowman at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “First quarter UK like-for-like sales declined by 1.3%, with second quarter sales likely to have retreated by a similar amount.
“In all, and with declining profitability weighed against corrective action being taken by the still relatively new chief executive Dave Lewis, analyst consensus opinion currently points towards a strong hold.”
Elsewhere, Vedanta Resources will be updating the market on Friday with its interim results.
There is not much good news in the sector at the moment and given that Vedanta last quarter reported lower production of some key commodities it looks like it could be a rough end to the week for the firm.
Graham Spooner at The Share Centre, said: “We would expect more of the same, especially given further drops in the price of commodities.
On the economic front, domestic news is set to dominate the forthcoming week.
The Conservative Party conference is set to kick things off on Sunday with chancellor George Osborne speaking on Monday.
Also this week is the BoE interest rate decision and minutes, due out on ‘Super Thursday’.
Investec expects the UK to follow the US’s lead. The broker said: “We expect no change in BoE policy with Bank rate held at 0.50%.”
Significant announcements expected
Monday
Final: Waterman Group (LON:WTM)
Interim: Tiso Blackstar Group (LON:LON:TBGR)
Trading statement: Cranswick (LON:CWK)
Economic: UK – PMI composite, Official reserves, EU – Retail sales, US – ISM non-manufcaturing
Tuesday
Trading statement: Greggs (LON:GRG), easyJet (LON:EZJ)
Economic: UK – New car registrations, EU – PMI retail, US – Balance of trade
Wednesday
Final: Ceres Power Holdings (LON:CWR)
Economic: UK – BRC shop price, Manufacturing production, Industrial production, US – Mortgage applications, Crude oil inventories.
Thursday
Trading statement: Victrex (LON:VCT), Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE), Hays (LON:HAS), Mondi (LON:MNDI), Carillion (LON:CLLN)
Economic: UK – BoE interest rate decision and minutes, US – FOMC minutes.
Friday
Interim and trading statement: Vedanta Resources (LON:VED)
Economic: UK – Balance of trade, US – Import & Export price indexes