Tuesday preview: House prices, Betfair, Ashmore, Supergroup

10th Sep 2012 16:04

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) house prices balance for August is due to be released at midnight on Monday, and the expectation is that it will have improved slightly to -23.What that means is that for every 100 RICS members polled, the number experiencing house price falls exceeded those experiencing house price rises by 23.As for the UK visible trade balance, due out at 9:30, a slight narrowing of the deficit is anticipated. Charles Stanley is forecasting the deficit will be £9bn in July, down from £10.12bn in June. The non-EU trade balance is seen being £4.60bn in the hole, an improvement on June's deficit of £5.17bn.On the corporate front, online bet-matching exchange Betfair releases an interim management statement covering its first quarter. As broker Panmure Gordon notes, the new financial year got off to a strong start, helped by the Euro 2012 football tournament, with net gaming revenue in the first eight weeks up 18%. The broker thinks this will have eased back to around 10% for the quarter as a whole."We expect mobile to remain a core driver of growth and we expect the group to receive exchange betting licences in Spain and Italy during the course of theyear. The group's strong cash generation should enable a step up in dividend payments over the next three years," the broker reckons.Like Betfair, fashion group Supergroup has had its share of management ups and downs and teething problems, with Chief Executive and co-founder of SuperGroup Theo Karpathios abruptly quitting his position in the middle of August to 'take on new challenges,' having presumably got fed up dealing with the surfeit of "old challenges". To make matters harder for the firm, the trading statement covers the first quarter (Q1) of its financial year, which last year was a bumper period for the fast-growing firm, in which like-for-like (LFL) retail sales growth of 14.4% year-on-year was achieved. "We forecast retail sales growth of around 15% and wholesale sales growth of around 5% for Q1 2012/13, which implies group quarterly revenue growth of c.11%," Panmure Gordon said, adding that it thinks the market is slowly regaining trust in the company's management. The broker reckons the shares are worth holding, if you already have them. "We await further evidence that our gut feel (of stronger management in the form of a new FD [finance director] and, especially, a new COO [chief operating officer) is correct before moving to a more positive stance," Panmure Gordon's Jean Roche said.Expectations for fund manager Ashmore's full-year results were lowered after its interim management statement in July. The market is now expecting revenue of £333.83m and profit before tax of £229.40m."A key focus will be on the outlook for asset gathering, with concerns that recent under-performance and increased competition will moderate the outlook for allocation to Ashmore's expanding product range," Peel Hunt suggests.Interims from Hilton Food Group will probably reflect the "challenging market conditions and constrained consumer demand" the meat-packing company spoke of in its trading statement back in July. Performance in the Nordic markets is likely to be a bright feature for Hilton.Peel Hunt forecasts a 3% year-on-year increase in profit before tax to £13.0m as currency movements and tough markets restrict growth. "Having Tesco as a key customer has not helped," the broker notes. INTERIMSHilton Food GroupINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEFresnilloINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Trade (US) (13:30)GMSColefax GroupFINALSAshmore Group, Interior Services GroupIMSSBetfair Group, IG Group Holdings, SupergroupAGMSAvarae Global Coins, Betfair Group, Cohort, JPMorgan Brazil Inv Trust , Oxford Instruments, ReNeuron Group, Rockhopper ExplorationUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Trade (09:30)JH