Wednesday preview: Greggs, Ashmore, Industrial Production

12th Jan 2010 17:57

The cold snap over Christmas may have prompted shoppers to contemplate popping into Greggs for a hot pie or sausage roll, but Shore Capital thinks that icy conditions, particularly in the north of England and Scotland, may have suppressed footfall at the bakery chain.It's a view shared by dinburgh based stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, which noted 'Greggs normally does well in cold weather, what with its soup, pasties and the like. It can be a prime time for sales,' adding that this time round 'it may well be the other way round ... with less footfall near the shops because of the ice.'In the first 42 weeks of 2009 Greggs'like for like sales were up 1.0%, though in the 16 weeks to 17 October that growth rate had slipped to 0.2%, largely as a result of food price inflation; sales volumes remained in line with those in the first half of the company's financial year. 'We are on track to deliver our targets for the year although the final outcome will depend on consumer sentiment and spending over the important Christmas period,' chief executive Ken McMeikan said back in late October.The share price of fund manager Ashmore was hammered on Tuesday as Swiss bank UBS downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy' and lowered the price target from 330p to 285p. The company gets a chance to bounce back quickly when it issues a trading update on Wednesday. The group had a strong third quarter of 2009, with managed assets rising to $31.1bn, reflecting net inflows of $3.6bn and an increase in the value of its portfolios of $2.6bn. External debt funds under management rose 20% from $14.7bn to $17.6bn. Local currency rose by 26% $5.3bn, while corporate high yield funds rose 40% to $0.7bn.On the economic front industrial production is expected to resume growth in November, having been unchanged in October from September's level. The consensus forecast is for a 0.3% increase from October's level, reducing the year on year decline to 6.1% from October's 8.4% fall. Manufacturing output is tipped to have improved by 0.2% in November to a level 5.1% lower than November 2008; in October the year on year decline was 7.8%.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE3i Group, Anglo Pacific, De La Rue, Hyder Consulting, Ventus 1 VCT, Ventus 2 VCT, Ventus 3 VCT, VT GroupINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEAshtead Group, Bisichi Mining, Foresight 3 VCT, IFG Group, Solid State, Spice, Umeco, Workspace GroupQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEBritish Land CoINTERIMSEbiquityFINALSProtonex TechnologyAGMSDiploma, Fenner, Northern Venture Trust, Northern Venture TrustTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSAshmore, Brown (N.) Group, Diploma, Greggs, SIGFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEHSBC HoldingsFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEAsset Man Inv Trust, Dunedin Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust, F&C Commercial Property Trust, Intec Telecom, Paragon Group Of Companies, Redhall Group, Scottish Inv TrustINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSMonthly Budget Statement (US) (19:00)Fed Beige Book (US) (19:00)Consumer Prices Index (FRA) (07:45)Industrial Production (EC) (10:00)Machine Tool Orders (JPN)Machine Orders (JPN)CGIP (JPN)UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSIndustrial Production (09:30)NIESR GDP estimate