Wednesday preview: Standard Chartered, ITV, Carillion

2nd Mar 2010 18:07

The banking results season trundles on with Standard Chartered set to release full year figures on Wednesday.Whenever results of banks are spoken of, mention of bonuses usually follows soon after, but while the top bosses of some of the High Street banks have responded to public pressure and waived their bonuses the profile of Asia-focused Standard Chartered may be low enough for chief executive Peter Sands to discreetly trouser whatever the remuneration committee recommends; press reports suggest it will be £2m after Sands hit his performance targets. Those same press reports suggest, however, that Sands will take a leaf out of the book of HSBC boss Michael Geoghegan and sign his bonus over to charity.On the results side of things Standard is tipped to announce profit before tax of $5.1bn. Market consensus is for earnings per share to fall somewhere in the range of $1.52 to $1.80.Results from terrestrial TV company ITV will be the first since the new management team of former Asda big cheese Archie Norman (chairman) and erstwhile Royal Mail and Football Association boss Adam Crozier (chief executive) was announced, although Crozier won't take up his post until later this year.Norman has kicked off a strategic review but is unlikely to commit to anything too major until Crozier joins the team. The advertising market is recovering but remains weak by historical standards. Having logged an adjusted pre-tax profit of £167m in 2008 (or a loss of £2.73bn on an 'as reported' basis) the company is expected to see profits slide to £69.52m this time round.Revenue is foreseen tumbling to £1.86bn from £2.03bn in 2008. However, the broadcaster reported an end to an 18-month decline in advertising revenue by reporting a 4% increase in December and industry reports suggest the TV market is up by 2.9% in the first quarter with the flagship channel ITV1 up by 2.7% and the ITV family of channels 5.1% better watched.Support services company Carillion said in December it was trading in line with expectations so results for 2009 should contain few surprises. Expectations are for pre-tax profits of £176.43m on turnover of £4,658m.Of more interest to the market will be management's views on the possibility of a slowdown in public spending after the forthcoming UK general election, which is no more than three months away.Investors have also been concerned about the group's exposure to Middle East markets, though the focus here is in Abu Dhabi and Oman rather than crisis-torn Dubai.Following hot on the heels of Persimmon's results are figures from fellow housebuilder Taylor Wimpey. Persimmon said it has seen a 7% increase in sales since the start of this year while prices have stabilised.Broker Charles Stanley predicts that Taylor Wimpey will report that it completed 10,186 homes in the UK during 2009 at an average selling price of £160,000. The broker is going for underlying loss before tax of £117.2m. That's not far off the market consensus of a loss of £115.2m. Sales are predicted to slide to £2,501m from £3,468m last year. On the economic front the service sector purchasing manager's index is out and expectations are that activity in February may have picked up from January's weather-blighted level. Economists expect the business activity index to hit 55.5, up from 54.5, which was a five month low. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.INTERIMSSportingbetINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEStagecoach GroupINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEAlumasc Group, Aquarius Platinum Ltd., BHP Billiton, BlueBay Asset Management, Carclo, Cassidy Brothers, Centaur Media, Cohort, Colefax Group, Craneware, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Diageo, Galliford Try, Gartmore Fledgling Trust, Hansard Global, Hays, James Halstead, Kesa Electricals, Lindsell Train Inv Trust, Mid Wynd International Inv Trust, Northamber, Oxford Instruments, Park Group, Ruffer Investment Company Ltd., Standard Life Equity Income Trust, Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust, Thorntons, Town Centre Securities, Waterman Group, Wilmington GroupQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEM&G Equity Inv Trust Income SharesINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSCurrent Account (AUS) (00:00)ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)Gross Domestic Product (AUS) (00:00)ISM Non-Manufacturing (US) (15:00)ISM Services (US) (15:00)PMI Services (EU) (09:00)PMI Services (GER) (08:55)Q2SportingbetFINALSArriva, Dialight, FBD Holdings, Hydrogen Group, International Personal Finance, Just Car Clinics Group, Lavendon Group, LSL Property Services, Macfarlane Group, Restaurant Group, RPS Group, Stadium Group, Standard Chartered, Taylor Wimpey, Unite Group, Yamana Gold IncEGMSComstar UTS GDR (Reg S)AGMSAberforth Smaller Companies Trust, Acuity VCT 3, Income & Growth VCT, New Europe Property InvestmentsUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Composite (09:30)PMI Services (09:30)FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEAll Leisure Group, Ambrian Capital, BBA Aviation, Beazley Group, BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, Cenkos Securities, Dillistone, Domino Printing, Dunedin Enterprise Inv Trust, Electronic Data Processing, Fidessa, Gleeson (M J) Group, Holders Technology, Hunting, Independent Inv Trust, JPMorgan Income & Growth Inv Trust Income Shares, Just Car Clinics Group, Law Debenture Corp., LPA Group, M Winkworth, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Moneysupermarket.com, Monks Inv Trust, Ocean Wilsons, Octopus Titan VCT 1, Octopus Titan VCT 2, Perpetual Income & Growth Inv Trust, Rathbone Brothers, Rights & Issue Inv Trust Capital Shares, Rights & Issues Inv Trust Income Shares, RSA Insurance Group, Safestore, Scottish American Inv Company, Securities Trust of Scotland, Severfield-Rowen, Small Companies Dividend Trust, St James's Place