Sky's the limit, but takeover bid is set to cloud the issue

BSkyB kicks off the blue-chip results season this week, but will have its work cut out shifting the spotlight from the takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Murdoch already owns 61 per cent of Sky, and the deal is being looked at by politicians and regulators, but the group will instead herald its strong trading performance when it reports interim results on Thursday.

Analysts expect Sky to post pre-tax profits of 454 million, a 27 per cent increase on the previous year. Dominic Buch, an analyst at Numis, and predicts the company will have recruited another 153,000 customers and made a profit of 455m.

The company smashed through the ten million television customer-mark in November, a target the business set itself in August 2004, when subscriber numbers were at 7.4 million.

It has extended its offering in recent years to cover high definition television, broadband and home phone services and most recently 3D viewing.

Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca has had a torrid year, which is likely to be reflected in subdued profits growth in its annual results on Thursday.

The group has been hampered by problems with its newest medicines, increased legal costs and greater competition from cheaper rivals.

Astra last month revealed it had discontinued its motavizumab drug, used to prevent serious lung disease, leading to a $445m (287.2m) accounting charge.

Keith Bowman, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said the British-Swedish pharmaceutical group, is expected to post a 1.9 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to $13 billion (8.2bn).

Astra, which employs 11,000 staff in the UK and has sites in Edinburgh, Macclesfield and Wilmslow in Cheshire, Luton, Loughborough and Brixham in Devon, shifted its focus on to new drugs like Brilinta in the wake of increased competition from cheaper rivals against its core range.

WH Smith will reveal how its business stood up to December's Arctic weather when it updates the market on Wednesday for its second quarter.Before the snow fell the City forecast that like-for-like sales at its high street and travel hubs would decline by 5 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

WH Smith has moved away from selling higher priced, lower margin goods, such as CDs, and has focused on selling confectionery, books and stationery.

Analysts predict WH Smith will make 93m profits in the year to August 2011, a 4.5 per cent increase on the previous year.

Shareholders in Capital Shopping Centres, Britain's biggest mall operator, will vote on Wednesday on controversial plans to buy the Trafford Centre for 1.6bn from Peel Holdings.

Capital's plans to buy the Trafford Centre sparked a rebellion from 5 per cent shareholder Simon Property Group, which complained that too many shares were being offered to finance the deal.

But analysts expect the transaction to go through because it is reported to have the backing of major shareholders.

Simon Property made a counter 3bn preliminary bid to buy Capital, which it later withdrew, blaming Capital for its refusal to open its books.