Week Ahead: 4-8 November

Monday 4 November

Interims: e2v Technologies, Grafenia

Final: Egdon Resources

Trading statements: Biome Technologies, Hiscox, HSBC, Telecity, Weir Group

Economics: Purchasing managers' index - construction, Halifax house price data

Companies paying dividends: M.P. Evans (2.25p), Mears (2.5p). Murgitroyd (8.75p), Pacific Horizon Inv. Tst. (1.5p)

Banking giant HSBC (HSBA) announces third-quarter figures on Monday and more reasonable progress looks likely. Unlike its UK-focused peers, HSBC’s emerging markets exposure leaves it with a robust growth profile - at the half-year stage, for instance, the Hong Kong operation boosted profit by 12 per cent to $4.2bn (£2.6bn). And with a Basel III-basis capital ratio of 10.1 per cent, the lender looks well capitalised. HSBC’s credit quality nightmare in the US - from the former Household International unit - appears to be coming to an end, too, and more progress on writing back provisions is possible. But further business misconduct costs, for issues such as payment protection insurance and interest rate product mis-selling, can’t be ruled out. Just his month, HSBC was ordered to pay a painful $2.5bn by a Chicago court - that’s related to complaints by shareholders about 2002’s acquisition of Household International. But the shares, at 688p, trade on about 1.4 times broker Investec’s end-year forecast for net tangible assets - undemanding for its global peer group and too cheap given HSBC's growth prospects. There’s a near 5 per cent prospective yield, too - one of the fattest in the global banking sector. We reiterate by our buy tip (680p, 20 June 2013). Investec expects full-year pre-tax profit of $25.3bn, giving EPS of 96.4¢.

Tuesday 5 November

Interims: First Derivatives, Marks & Spencer

Finals: Associated British Foods, Imperial Tobacco, Next Fifteen Communications

Trading statements: 4Imprint, Balfour Beatty, CSR, G4S, Hilton Food Group, Intercontinental Hotels, Intu Properties, Kofax, Legal & General, PPHE Hotel Group

AGM: Animalcare

Economics: British retail consortium - like-for-like sales data, purchasing managers' index - services, official reserves data

Companies paying dividends: IPPlus (0.3p), Nationwide Accident Repair (1p), UK Select Trust (1.8p)

When Marks & Spencer (MKS) announces half-year figures on Tuesday, investors will be looking for signs of a turnaround. After all, the retailer has had a tough time lately - first quarter figures, for example, were poor, with like-for-like sales in general merchandising having tumbled 1.6 per cent. It was only a decent food showing, where first quarter underlying sales rose 1.8 percent, that allowed the company to avoid slipping backwards - group first-quarter like-for-like sales rose just 0.3 per cent overall. Meanwhile, sentiment has been hit again this month after the departure of yet another senior womenswear executive. Development and buying director Gillian Ridley Whittle is to join Australian retailer, Target, and her departure follows that of Janie Schaffer, hired to reinvigorate the underwear section, and also head of merchandising, Cathy Haydon. Still, the group also said this month that it’s to open another 150 Simply Food stores over the next three years - that looks like a laudable effort to focus on a key strength. Shore Capital expects 2014 pre-tax profit of £607m, with EPS of 29p. At 477p, that leaves the shares rated on 16 times forecast earnings - not cheap for the retail sector, especially given that the group has plenty of work ahead to turn its fortunes around. Sell.

Wednesday 6 November

Interims: DCC, Experian, First Group

Final: Goldplat

Trading statements: Aer Lingus, Alent, Ark Therapeutics, easyJet, Foxtons Group, Lancashire Holdings, Millennium & Copthorne, Mondi, New World Resources, Old Mutual, Persimmon, Smurfit Kappa, Wetherspoon (JD)

AGMs: Hargreaves Services, Mobile Streams, Sinclair IS Pharma

Economics: British Retail Consortium shop price index, industrial production figures, manufacturing production figures, National Institute of Economic and Social Research - GDP estimate (October), new car registrations

Companies paying dividends: Carillion (5.5p), Dillistone (1.25p), Statpro (0.85p)

Thursday 7 November

Interims: Cable & Wireless Communications, Dairy Crest, Halfords, Invensys, Shanks, Tate & Lyle, Wincanton

Final: Grainger

Trading statements: Admiral Group, Aviva, Beazley, Dialight, EOG Resources, Eurasian Natural Resources, Hardy Oil & Gas, International Ferro Metals, Inmarsat, London Mining, Morgan Sindall, Randgold Resources, Reed Elsevier, RSA Insurance, Schroders, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Spirent Communications, Supergroup, Synthomer, Wm Morrison

AGMs: Ceres Power, Hansard Global, Mirada

EGM: Chesnara

Economics: Bank of England interest rate announcement, Bank of England asset purchase target

Companies paying dividends: Begbies Traynor (1.6p), Bodycote (4.4p), British & American Inv. Tst. (2.7p), Cenkos (3.5p), Hydrogen Group (1.5p), Penna Consulting (1p), Photo-Me International (1.5p), SIG (1.15p), Synthomer (2.4p), Wilmington (3.5p)

Various insurers will release trading statements this week, including Lloyd’s underwriter, Beazley (BEZ) - its third-quarter update appears on Thursday. And reasonable progress looks likely. The claims environment, for instance, has continued to remain fairly benign with virtually no big loss-inducing events of late - there hasn’t even been a major hurricane this year - while generally speaking, premium rates remain at high levels, allowing insurers to report solidly profitable combined ratios (of claims to premiums); Beazley’s, for example, was 89 per cent at the half-year stage. But Beazley could well flag-up growing pressure on premium rates. With new capital providers entering the sector, and with fewer catastrophes to absorb capital, insurers could start cutting premium rates to grab business. Indeed, insurance broker Willis reckons that property catastrophe rates, for example, could fall by 5-10 per cent in 2014’s first quarter. Meanwhile, in a world of low interest rates, and as bond yields have risen, Beazley’s investment return is likely to remain slender. Numis Securities expects full-year EPS of 21.7p, net tangible assets (NTA) of 145.3p and an 8.9p dividend. At 216p, the shares trade on l.5 times forecast NTA - not especially cheap, either for the sector, or given that premium rates could soften. Hold.

Friday 8 November

Trading statements: Bovis Homes, Hansard Global, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, IAG, John Menzies, Novae, Rentokil Initial, Rolls-Royce

AGM: Abcam

Economics: Trade figures, construction output data

Companies paying dividends: British Land (6.75p), Cobham (2.64p), Daejan Holdings (54p), Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (5.7p), Hargreave Hale VCT2 (2p), Huntsworth (1p), Johnson Service Group (0.4p), Judges Scientific (6.6p), Rightmove (11p), Spectris (14.75p), Spirax-Sarco Engineering (18p), Unite (1.6p)

Shares going ex-dividend on 6 November

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.

IC ONLINE

The data in the table above is a small selection of what's available on our website. Just go to www.investorschronicle.co.uk/shares and click on the dividend calendar box. You can download a full table of ex-dividend dates as an Excel spreadsheets. The dividend calendar is updated every Friday.