The City is now in full swing after what has felt like an extended summer break with some big companies updating on progress next week.
Eagerly watched will be J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) to gauge how it is faring against the German discounters Aldi and Lidl.
According to the last update from Kantar Worldpanel, Sainsbury’s market share last month declined by 0.2 percentage points to 15.9%, which suggests the food retailer may be sacrificing sales to protect its profit margins.
“The core Sainsbury business is seeing relatively weaker sales trends than for some years, but this is to some extent the inevitable result of ending multi-buy offers and may not be such bad news for the bottom line as the top line,” said James Anstead, analyst at Barclays.
Wednesday’s trading update should provide us with more insight on the direction of travel and furnish us with more information on the integration of Argos.
TUI travel and Smiths Group PLC reporting
It looks to be a busy day for scheduled news with TUI travel Ltd (LON:TUI) and Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN) reporting respectively fourth-quarter and full-year numbers.
The day before we have full-year results from the building supplies group Wolseley PLC (LON:WOS), which is expected to return up to £350mln in the form of either a special dive or share buyback (investors got £300mln last year).
UBS reckons operating profits will be in the order of £928mln (up from £857mln previously), while year-end debt should be just under £1bn mark (£991mln, according to the Swiss bank).
Analysts will be looking for a marked recovery in the pace of growth in US after a lacklustre showing earlier in the year.
On Thursday Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) updates.
The period covers the key summer trading period (a year on from the Alton Towers roller coaster incident).
Analysts are forecasting a continuation of the rather sluggish performance seen in the first half, when visitor numbers grew by just 1.1%.
“We expect some commentary from management regarding whether the weaker pound is benefiting demand for Merlin attractions in London, especially since our data now suggests an improvement in attendance levels at the London Eye,” said UBS analyst Chris Stevens.
He is predicting revenue growth of 4.4% at constant currencies.
Finally, Thursday also sees a pre-close update from Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB), the company formerly known as Imperial Tobacco.
The market is expecting sales volumes to have fallen by as much as 3%.
Morgan Stanley is expecting a like-for-like decline of 2% for the 14 weeks ended September 11.
Ebiquity under the spotlight
On Wednesday marketing analytics firm Ebiquity (LON: EBQ) is under the spotlight as it reports on an eventful six months on September 28 (Wednesday).
Numis rates shares a 'buy' and targets 162p. The broker forecasts pre-tax profit and EPS of £7.9mln and 6.9p.
"The group released a trading update in July which stated H1 was broadly in line with expectations, and it had confidence that an improved H2 would lead to it meeting FY expectations," said analyst Paul Richards, who reckons Ebiquity offers "standout" value for investors.
On Monday, Ergomed Plc (LON: ERGO), the clinical trial services group reports interim results and traders will be keen to see how and from where growth is coming from.
Last week it made its first cross-sale following the acquisition of German companies O+P and GASD in June.
The contract is worth €1.5mln and covers six countries and Miroslav Reljanovic, chief executive, said the deal was with an existing customer of O+P and GASD.
“The significantly broadened suite of Ergomed services provided to this customer validates the rationale behind our recent acquisitions of these German businesses," he said.
Significant announcements
Monday
Tuesday
Wolseley plc (LON:WOS). Thomas Cook Group plc (LON:TCG)
Card Factory PLC (LON:CARD), Boohoo.com (LON:BOO)
Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN)
Wednesday
J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY), Smiths Group (LON:SMIN), Clinigen Group (LON:CLIN).
Thursday
Daily Mail & General Trust plc (LON:DMGT), Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL)
Friday
Trinity Mirror plc (LON:TNI)