Week Ahead: 29 July-2 August

Monday July 29

Interims: Fidessa, Hammerson, Hiscox, Intertek, JKX Oil & Gas, Keller, Reckitt Benckiser, Senior, Vernalis, XP Power

Trading statements: Aberdeen Asset Management, Creston, National Grid, Polymetal International, Ryanair

AGMs: Ashley House, Cranswick, National Grid

EGMs: Dechra Pharmaceuticals, LMS Capital, Patagonia Gold

Economics: Hometrack housing survey, net consumer credit data, data for net lending secured on dwellings, mortgage approvals data, M4 money supply figures, Confederation of British Industry reported sales data, Nationwide house prices data

Hammerson (HMSO) will have some reassuring to do when it posts half-year results on Monday. At 543p, its shares trade in line with last December’s adjusted book value of 542p, even though the sale of its London office portfolio last year has left it a pure play on the underperforming retail sector.

Like the other big landlords, Hammerson owns major shopping centres and retail parks, which are proving more resilient than high-street shops as e-commerce grows. But the company’s first-quarter figures were not encouraging – occupancy fell from 97.1 per cent in March 2012 to 96.6 per cent a year later, largely due to its French operation. UK retail sales have shown signs of picking up lately, but it will be some time before that translates into higher rents - Land Securities noted last week that “the retail market remains challenging”. Yet there is little danger that book value will fall - rents should at least be maintained, and the investment market for institutional-grade assets is strong. Brokerage Investec expects adjusted book value to creep up to 552p by the year end.

Tuesday July 30

Interims: African Barrick Gold, Barclays, BP, Brammer, Capital & Counties Properties, Domino's Pizza, Drax, Ensco, GKN, Informa, International Personal Finance, ITV, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, LSL Property Services, Pace, Telecity, Thomson Reuters, Tullett Prebon, Weir, Wolfson Microelectronics

Final: Games Workshop

Trading statements: Diploma, Greencore, Next, Petra Diamonds

AGMs: GeoPark, Halfords, Insetco, Plastics Capital, Top Level Domain, Water Hall

Barclays (BARC) will release half-year figures on Tuesday against a backdrop of yet more reputational misery. Earlier this month, the bank was fined $453m (£298m) after US authorities accused the lender of having manipulated the electricity markets in California and other US states from November 2006 to December 2008. That, of course, follows last year's £290m fine for Libor-rigging. Moreover, last month UK bank regulators named Barclays as one of the lenders facing a capital shortfall under the tougher Basel III rules - some £3bn, based on end-2012's figures. Still, the half-year numbers are likely to reveal progress. At the first-quarter stage, for example, there were no further charges for payment protection insurance mis-selling and bad debts have also continued to fall - the first-quarter's impairment charge fell 10 per cent year on year. Still, the lender is heavily exposed to volatile investment banking conditions and a weak UK retail banking market. So, with the shares at 319p - not that far below Investec Securities' full-year net tangible assets estimate of 354.2p - catalysts for significant further upside are hard to spot. The broker also expects full-year EPS of 24.1p. Hold.

Wednesday July 31

Interims: 4Imprint, British American Tobacco, Centrica, Devro, Dignity, Essentra, F&C Asset Management, Genel Energy, Hydrodec, Mecom, Millennium & Copthorne, Moneysupermarket.com, Rightmove, Segro, Smurfit Kappa, Statpro, St James's Place, Tarsus, Taylor Wimpey, Tullow Oil, Xchanging

Final: Diageo

Trading statements: Antofagasta, Atkins (WS), Brewin Dolphin, Future, Vedanta Resources

AGMs: Atkins (WS), CML Microsystems, Hyder Consulting, Kibo Mining, Mytrah Energy, Treveria

EGMs: Corero Network Security, Pursuit Dynamics

Economics: British Retail Consortium shop price index, GfK consumer confidence survey

British American Tobacco (BATS) is likely to report steady performance at the half-year stage, given that trading conditions haven’t changed materially since a decent first quarter trading update in April. In fact, analysts at J.P.Morgan Cazenove believe the most important difference since the first quarter is in foreign exchange movements in emerging markets, and it is for this reason alone that they have cut full-year EPS estimates. For the half-year, JP Morgan expects group operating profit of £2.9bn, a 4 per cent rise in constant currency, and adjusted EPS of 108p, a 7 per cent rise, aided by the share buyback programme.

British American is good at using pricing power and cost savings to offset volume declines and keep profits and dividends growing at steady rate. A forward PE ratio of 15 isn’t cheap, but there’s a 4.4 per cent forecast dividend yield for 2013. Hold.

Thursday 1 August

Interims: Aggreko, Allied Irish Banks, AstraZeneca, BAE Systems, Bumi, Communisis, Countrywide, Intu Properties, Jupiter Fund Management, Laird, Lloyds Banking, Management Consulting, Promethean World, Rathbone Brothers, RPS, Robert Walters, Royal Dutch Shell, RSA Insurance, Smith & Nephew, Spirent Communications, Trinity Mirror, UBM

Trading statements: Covidien, Investec, Thomas Cook

AGMs: Pennon, Phoenix IT, Vedanta Resources

Economics: Purchasing manufacturers' index - manufacturing, Bank of England interest rate announcement, Bank of England asset purchase target

Friday 2 August

Interims: Direct Line Insurance, Fiberweb, Inchcape, Inmarsat, Jardine Matheson, Man, Rexam, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vesuvius, William Hill

EGM: Kazakhmys

Shares going ex-dividend on 31 July

The ex-dividend date is the first day on which it is no longer possible to buy the shares and qualify for the dividend. Ex-days are almost always a Wednesday. The record date is usually two days after the ex-date. The payment day is the day on which the funds are transferred to shareholders.