The Forward Look featuring WH Smith, ASOS and Home Retail Group

Nick Raynor is an investment adviser at retail stockbroker, The Share Centre, having been there since 2002. Nick has over 11 years’ experience in personal finance. Nick is regularly asked to offer his insight on a wide range of financial matters to the UK media for papers including The Times and The Daily Telegraph. He provides weekly share comment to several regional newspapers, as well as finance-based websites such as MoneyExtra.com. He gives his thoughts on what to expect from companies announcing results w/c 7 June 2010.

 

 

Tuesday

Wh Smith Plc (LON:SMWH) (interim management statement) - WHSmith will be hoping for good news in this statement to counteract being ranked as the worst retailer for customer service. Results released in April showed the company remained cautious about consumer spending for the remainder of the year despite good profit performance and we expect much of the same. We do not currently hold a view on WHSmith.

Wednesday

ASOS (LON:ASC) (full year 2009 preliminary results) - Online fashion retailer, ASOS reported a 35% rise in sales to £206m in the year to 31 March 2009, these results are expected to again see strong growth in the UK and internationally. The company’s ability to quickly follow the latest catwalk trends at affordable prices puts them in a good position, especially as the World Cup encourages young girls to copy the fashion style of WAG’s. We do not currently hold a view on ASOS.

Thursday

Home Retail Group Plc (LON:HOME) (interim management statement) - Home Retail's latest update in April wasn't the most positive of releases. Although sales rose throughout the group, profits fell as higher product costs and margins were stretched. As the economic outlook makes life difficult for retailers and there are no signs of any let up, we will be interested to see how the group continue to deal with the ever increasing customer demand for discount prices. The group has also noted that it is committed to its dividend policy and share buy-back programme, a continuation of this will be good news for income seekers. We currently list Home Retail as a HOLD

Economic diary

UK Trade April, 9 June - Official data from the ONS on the UK’s trade is at odds with anecdotal evidence. The deficit for March fell to £3.7bn from £2.2bn in February. The deficit on goods increased from £6.3bn to £7.5bn, and the deficit with the EU widened to £3.4bn from £2.9bn. In Q1 exports were up 0.8%, imports by 1.6%. Yet the manufacturing survey from CIPS/Markit has been reporting an apparently buoyant export sector, with the index tracking new export orders hitting an all-time high in April. Analysts would act positively if the official data was in any way consistent with the CIPS/Markit findings.

Monetary Policy Committee announcement, 10 June -  There have been signs of a split in the Bank of England recently. The minutes from the last meeting, for example, said that some members of the committee were becoming anxious that there seemed to be less spare capacity than previously thought. Announcement of a change in rates or quantitative easing from today’s meeting would, however, be a major surprise.

Other economic announcements

10 June

• US International Trade April, BEA

11 Junes

• Producer Price Index June, ONS

• Index of Production – April 2010, ONS

• Interest rates (3 months), ECB