What's in store today...
18th February 2014 00:00
by Julie Fisher from interactive investor
Miner will publish its interim results on Tuesday.
Recent news: In half-year results released in December, BHP reported record output for 10 operations and three commodities, including iron ore.
Analyst expectations: Whitman Howard analyst Roger Bade expects "good growth" to follow the "decent production numbers" referenced above.
"Iron ore and petroleum should be positive stand outs, while disappointments are likely to be restricted to nickel and aluminium," he comments, adding: "Even those are likely to be minor. The only write down that might be anticipated is that for South African aluminium, but again that won't be significant."
He predicts that investors will focus on a potential 7.9% increase in the interim dividend, "where less than 61.5 cents (36.8p) per share might disappoint".
Economic news
In a week where important events are expected to keep UK markets on their toes, the economic week will be kicked off with the release of January's consumer and producer price indices (CPI and PPI).
CPI inflation edged down to its target of 2% in December, with January's figure expected to nudge down further to 1.9%, marking "the beginning of a period of inflation modestly below its target," says Investec analyst Philip Shaw.
"Gas and electricity prices should not feature much. If anything they may exert a small downward effect as LSE:CNA:Centrica's small tariff cut ought to outweigh a hike from EDF," he explains.
Shaw expects PPI inflation to fall to its lowest level since September 2009, at -3.5%.
"There was a favourable confluence of events in January, including widespread declines in commodity prices and a 1.2% increase in sterling's trade weighted index. We expect this to result in a significant drop in input costs on the month," says Shaw.
Tuesday 18 February
Trading statements
BHP Billiton, Brammer, Hutchison China Meditech, Dragon Oil, Pendragon, Morgan Sindall, John Wood Group, Drax Group, InterContinental Hotels Group, AZ Electronic Materials, Essar Energy.
AGM/EGM
NewRiver Retail, Radiant Growth Investments, MedicX Fund.