Banking results season is upon us, with HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered all set to report.
HSBC gets the ball rolling on Monday, having recently decided not to move its headquarters (HQ) away from the UK.
The review of its HQ options was either a complete waste of money or a very shrewd bargaining ploy by the Asia-focused lender to get the government to make changes in the banking levy that are favourable to HSBC.
The board has decided that it is not necessary to continue the previous practice of reviewing the location of the group's headquarters every three years, and will only revisit the matter if there is a material change in circumstances, it revealed.
There has been a good deal of speculation that chairman Douglas Flint and chief executive officer Stuart Gulliver could be approaching their sell-by date, with some comments in the press suggesting that a dividend cut – even though HSBC is yielding close to 8% - could spell doom for Gulliver.
Lloyds is also under something of a cloud, after market turmoil forced the chancellor of the Exchequer to put a hold on plans to sell off the rump of the government's stake in the bank.
Lloyds was once a stalwart of the portfolios of income-focused funds and it has signalled its intention to become a healthy dividend payer again, but before it can return to those ranks it needs to put legacy issues such as payment protection insurance mis-selling claims behind it.
Another stock where the dividend is a hot potato is heavily indebted mining leviathan BHP Billiton, which updates the market on Monday.
Sector peer Rio Tinto has bitten the bullet and signalled the end to a progressive dividend policy – i.e. a commitment to increase the dividend each year – and switched to a more flexible approach; will BHP Billiton follow suit.
A dividend yield of 11.7% indicates the market believes a cut in the pay-out is a nailed-on certainty.
Also out on Monday is a trading statement from Primark-owner Associated British Foods (LON:ABF), covering the eight weeks to the end of February.
Monday
Finals: Bovis Homes Group (LON:BVS), Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW), HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA), XP Power (LON:XPP)
Interims: BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), Dechra Pharmaceuticals (LON:DPH), Gemfields (LON:GEM), Gleeson (M J) Group (LON:GLE), Green Reit (LON:GRN)
Trading statement: Associated British Foods (LON:ABF)
Tuesday
Finals: Croda International (LON:CRDA), Drax Group (LON:DRX), GKN (LON:GKN), InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG), John Wood Group (LON:WG.), Ladbrokes (LON:LAD), Meggitt (LON:MGGT), Morgan Advanced Materials (LON:MGAM), Persimmon (LON:PSN), Provident Financial (LON:PFG), Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Unite Group (LON:UTG), Vitec Group (LON:The) (LON:VTC)
Interims: BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), dotDigital Group (LON:DOTD), Gallif Try (LON:GFRD), Just Retirement Group (LON:JRG), Pan African Resources (LON:PAF)
Wednesday
Finals: Capital & Counties Properties (LON:CAPC), Harworth Estates Group (LON:HWG), International Personal Finance (LON:IPF), Interserve (LON:IRV), Man Group (LON:EMG), New World Resources (LON:NWR), Petrofac (LON:PFC), Rathbone Brothers (LON:RAT), STV Group (LON:STVG), Synectics (LON:SNX), Weir Group (LON:WEIR)
Interims: Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), Hays (LON:HAS), Ibex Global Solutions (LON:IBEX), McBride (LON:MCB), Town Centre Securities (LON:TCSC), Tristel (LON:TSTL), Wilmington Group (LON:WIL)
Thursday
Finals: Bodycote (LON:BOY), British American Tobacco (LON:BATS), Capita Group (The) (LON:CPI), Coats Group (LON:COA), COLT Telecom Group SA (LON:COLT), Compagnie De St-Gobain (LON:COD ), Countrywide (LON:CWD), Derwent London (LON:DLN), Howden Joinery (LON:HWDN), Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ), Lavendon Group (LON:LVD), Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY), Macfarlane Group (LON:MACF), Merlin Entertainments (LON:MERL), Mondi (LON:MNDI), National Express Group (LON:NEX), N Gold (LON:N), Playtech (LON:PTEC), Premier Oil (LON:PMO), RELX (LON:REL), Rentokil Initial (LON:RTO), RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA), Serco Group (LON:SRP), Sphere Medical Holding (LON:SPHR), Spirent Communications (LON:SPT), St James's Place (LON:STJ), UBM (LON:UBM)
Interims: Ceres Power Holdings (LON:CWR), Gallif Try (LON:GFRD), Pan African Resources (LON:PAF), South32 (LON:S32)
Trading statement: Safestore Holdings (LON:SAFE)
Friday
Finals: FBD Holdings (LON:FBH), IMI (LON:IMI), International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG), Intu Properties (LON:INTU), Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate (LON:KWE), Pearson (LON:PSON), Rightmove (LON:RMV), Royal Bank of Scotland Group (The) (LON:RBS), Telefonica SA (LON:TDE ), William Hill (LON:WMH)
Interims: Ricardo (LON:RCDO), Tristel (LON:TSTL)
Trading statement: Volex Group (LON:VLX)