Pinch-punch Tuesday’s the first of the month, and if the summer lull has investors in lethargy then the start of August brings energy - well, energy stocks at least.
British Gas owner Centrica is among the blue-chip names in Tuesday’s City agenda.
Centrica’s interim results will be even more interesting than usual after media reports at the start of July suggested that the firm could be a takeover target.
Among the prospective bidders was said to be a consortium of Kuwait, Singapore and Canada infrastructure-focused buyers and their advisors, according to Zak Mir on the Wallstreetwires website.
Another potential bidder was seen as a strategic buyer with its advisors. The reports said any takeover bid for Centrica was expected to fetch up to 300p per share.
Worries about Centrica's profits being hit by a proposed energy cap were soothed in June after the Theresa’s May’s new minority government watered down its plans to knock £100mln off bills for 17 million households to instead protect just 2.2 million "vulnerable" customers on the poorest-value tariffs.
A number of brokers upgraded their ratings for the utilities group in the wake of the price cap climb-down, but British Gas remains in the cross-hairs of the regulator amid customer service factors as well as cost issues.
Will BP results follow Shell’s lead?
Psychologically it can be tricky to set Royal Dutch Shell PLC (LON:RDSB) and BP PLC (LON:BP. apart, even though the latter is now quite a lot smaller than the former.
To the casual investor, the two so-called supermajors listed in London basically sit together and are a muchness, so there’s probably a degree of positivity for BP after Shell’s upbeat quarterly results.
Shell revealed on Thursday, June 27, that it has seen dramatic improvement in financial metrics for income, cashflow and earnings. It was the latest encouraging demonstration that the large oil firms are viable, as the market is coming to terms with a ‘lower for longer’ oil price environment.
“In a quarter that saw the oil price fall as low as $45/bl, the first sets of quarterly results for the European Oil sector were reassuring,” Barclays Capital analyst Lydia Rainforth said in a note.
“All companies reported 2Q earnings ahead of consensus alongside a reduction in net debt.”
Naturally, BP has its own specific circumstances and has had its own specific problems as it has responded to the Macondo oil spill at the start of the decade.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Alex Brooks, in a recent note, said the BP results are likely to feature large write-downs in the upstream business, for Angolan exploration assets and another large oil spill payout.
As has become customary for BP results, investors will be interested in progress through the group’s disposal programmes as well as the financial figures.
Interim results
Filtronic PLC (LON:FTC), Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL), 4imprint Group PLC (LON:FOUR), Meggitt plc (LON:MGGT), Man Group PLC (LON:EMG), Gocompare.com Group Plc (LON:GOCO), Greggs plc (LON:GRG), NWF Group plc (LON:NWF), LSL Property Services PLC (LON:LSL), Intertek Group PLC (LON:ITRK), Rolls-Royce Group PLC (LON:RR.), SDL Plc (LON:SDL), Elementis PLC (LON:ELM), Forterra PLC (LON:FORT), Centrica PLC (LON:CNA), BBA Aviation PLC (LON:BBA), Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.), BP PLC (LON:BP.), Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLG)