Wednesday preview: All about Lloyds Banking

4th Aug 2009 12:34

Part-nationalised bank Lloyds Banking will dominate the headlines tomorrow morning. Rivals Barclays and HSBC have done well this week after their figures. Lloyds will receive less of a lift from the revival in capital markets, focused as it is on the retail market, even so the bank is tipped to announce a loss of just over £5bn, with provisions for bad loans once again responsible for the bank's negative performance. Much of the bad loan burden has been inherited from its acquisition of mortgage lender HBOS, and investors will be hoping for detailed information on how soon the promised synergies from its ill-fated merger will start to feed through to the bottom line. Home improvement spending will be under scrutiny tomorrow when two leading retailers, Topps Tiles and Carpetright, give a trading update. The figures themselves will not be much to write home about but analysts will be keenly watching to see if they confirm any of the recent early signs of a housing market recovery. Brokers expect Topps Tiles like-for-like sales to be down by about 7% over the third quarter. Carpetright's first quarter is traditionally quiet, with the hot weather likely to make it weaker than usual. LFL sales will also be down by about 7% predict brokers.INTERIMS ARC International, Hardy Underwriting, LSL Property Services, Lloyds Banking Group, Old Mutual, Premier Foods, StatPro Group INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE Aberdeen Growth Opportunities VCT, AstraZeneca, BG Group, Bluehone AIM VCT 2, Brit Insurance Holding, Dialight, Edinburgh UK Tracker Trust, F&C Inv Trust, Independent Inv Trust, Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings, Porvair, RAB Capital, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Reed Elsevier, St James's Place, Thomas Cook Group QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B' INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:00) Factory Orders (US) (15:00) ISM Services (US) (15:00) FINALS Stagecoach Theatre Arts AGMS Asia Resources, Goldshield Group, Invesco Income Growth Trust, Pennine Downing AIM VCT 2 UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS BRC Shop Price Index (10:30) Service Sector Purchasing Managers Index Industrial Production Manufacturing Output FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Halfords Group, PGI Group, Record, Vedanta Resources FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE Aberdeen New Dawn Inv Trust, Carclo, City Natural Resources High Yield Trust, Cohort, F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd., Henderson Far East Income Ltd., Latham (James), New FCPT Ld, QinetiQ Group, RPC Group, SSL International, Sutton Harbour QUARTERLY RESULTS Carpetright, ShireTRADING ANNOUNCEMENT Topps Tiles