Market watch: Investors hope for crisis relief with better Barclays figures

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on 22/07/2012 00:00

BANKING giant Barclays has endured one of the most turbulent periods in its history after it was fined £290 million by UK and US regulators for manipulating Libor, an interbank lending rate that affects mortgages and loans.

The affair led to the departure of chief executive Bob Diamond, triggered a fierce debate in Westminster over banking ethics and spawned several closely-watched hearings before the Treasury select committee.

Marcus Agius, who will resign once a successor for Diamond is found, will present the group’s interim results on Friday in his temporary role as executive chairman.

He will hope the figures, which are forecast to show a 10 per cent rise in profits, to about £4 billion, will go some way towards appeasing investors, who have seen the share price plunge 20 per cent since the scandal broke.

Drugs giants AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline will go head-to-head. Analysts at Charles Stanley expect Astra’s second-quarter profits to be down to $2.3bn (£1.5bn) from $3.2bn on the back of sales falling to $7bn from $8.4bn, while Merrill Lynch has pencilled in a fall in GSK’s Q2 profits to £1.9bn from £3bn, with sales flat at £6.7bn.

Paul Hickman, an analyst at Peel Hunt, warned there was “no grounds for optimism on trading” at FirstGroup, which will hold its AGM on Wednesday. He said: “There should be continuing recovery in First Student and Greyhound, but the reshaping of the UK bus division is still early stage.”

Aberdeen Asset Management will deliver its third-quarter results tomorrow. Peel Hunt analyst Stuart Duncan said: “We expect the overall message to be consistent with that of the past few years – good inflows into higher-margin equity products offset by outflows in other areas.”

Monday: Aberdeen Asset Management, Domino’s Pizza,

Tuesday: Carpetright, Imperial Tobacco, Man, Virgin Media

Wednesday: ARM, BAT, BT, FirstGroup, GSK, Marston’s

Thursday: AstraZeneca BSkyB, Centrica, ITV, Lloyds, National Express, Rolls-Royce, Shell, SABMiller, SSE, Tate & Lyle

Friday: Barclays, Pearson, Spectris, UBM, William Hill