Monday 22 March
– Kingfisher full-year results
Kingfisher, owner of the DIY chains B&Q and Screwfix, as well as France’s Castorama and Brico Depot, has been a huge pandemic winner, so far as investors are concerned, said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“The shares have more than doubled over the past year and the firm even vaulted back into the FTSE 100 last summer, less than 12 months after boss Veronique Laury had been shown the door after a spell of poor operational and share price performance.”
Analysts and shareholders will be looking at regional trends. Overall, analysts are expecting 11% like-for-like sales growth in the UK and Ireland, 5.3% in France, and 5% in Poland. In terms of other regions, Iberia was showing 20.6% year-on-year growth in December and Romania 12.5%. E-commerce sales overall were up 154% in that month.
– Full-year results from Centamin
– US existing homes sales data
– Quarterly results from Saudi Aramco
– In the US, quarterly results from Tencent Music
Tuesday 23 March
– UK unemployment figures
Mould said the unemployment rate crept up to 5.1% in December, confirming that 380,000 jobs had been lost since the start of the pandemic a year ago. “Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the furlough scheme again and measures such as that do seem to have helped in keeping the level down, although economists will be aware the job losses often continue even as we come out of recessions,” added Mould.
– Full-year results from Yorkshire land and property developer Henry Boot
– First-half results from Ferguson
– Japanese inflation figures
– In Europe, quarterly results from truck maker MAN
– In the US, quarterly results from Adobe and GameStop
Wednesday 24 March
– UK inflation figures
– Full-year results from Pendragon and Burford Capital
– First-half results from Bellway
– Trading statement from Halma
– Flash purchasing managers’ indices in Asia, Europe, UK and USA
– US durable goods data
– US oil inventories data
– In Asia, quarterly results from Tencent, Xiaomi and Volvo-owner Geely Autos
– In the US, quarterly results from Cheerios-maker General Mills
Thursday 25 March
– Full-year results from Cineworld and S4 Capital
– First-half results from veterinary services specialist CVS
– Trading updates from United Utilities and Compass
– In Asia, quarterly results from CNOOC
– In the US, quarterly results from Darden Restaurants
Friday 26 March
– Smiths Group first-half results
The engineering conglomerate’s shares are up more than 80% over the past year, thanks to hopes for an economic upturn, ongoing plans to spin out the Medical equipment arm and also last autumn’s resumption of dividend payments, after the deferral of the interim distribution at this stage a year ago, noted Mould.
Mould said: “When it comes to these interim results, analysts will look to the trends across the four main divisions and medical, for any sign of improving momentum.”
– Full-year results from BigBlu Broadband
– German Ifo business climate survey
– In Asia, quarterly results from Hon Hai Precision
