After a pause for breath in the week after Easter company results resume full flow next week, with High Street big hitters such as Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and WH Smith all set to update the market.

The full year results from supermarket leviathan Tesco will probably garner the most attention. The company has already given guidance on what the full year figures are likely when it provided a trading update in January that was interpreted in all quarters as the company's first profits warning in living memory, so the focus will be on the turnaround plan for the core UK supermarket chain.

For the record, however, the market is expecting profit before tax of £3.6bn on sales of £65.8bn. Earnings per share are tipped to be 33.6p while the dividend - which is becoming a key appeal of the shares as an investment - is seen rising to 15.06p for the whole year from 14.46p the year before. However, Panmure Gordon thinks the group might freeze the final dividend, which would mean a full year pay-out of 14.72p.

"Following a Christmas LFL ex-fuel ex-VAT LFL of -2.3%, we expect our Q4/FY forecast of -1.7%/-0.9% to evidence a better exit rate," says broker Nomura Securities. Translated into English, that means that after reporting a year-on-year fall in like-for-like (LFL) sales, excluding fuel and value added tax (VAT), of 2.3% over the Christmas period (the six weeks to January 7th), Tesco's fiscal fourth quarter LFL sales will be down 1.7% while LFL sales over the whole year will be down 0.9% compared to a year earlier, according to Nomura's predictions.

"Although partially supported by increased couponing/promotional activity, we expect the early signs of improvement to be viewed positively," Nomura added.

The broker is forecasting a trading profit of £2,465m, which would represent a 5.7% trading margin. "Having implicitly guided to a 5%-plus UK trading margin for [fiscal] 12/13E ... we think Tesco will add substance to its explanation of the UK reset by highlighting specific issues and remedies. Specifically, feedback from the 200 store trial adding more labour hours should provide tangible evidence from one of several key initiatives, and reassurance with respect to the level of investment required. Moreover, we also expect Tesco to outline plans to improve the ambience of stores by accelerating its rolling c.5-7 year 'Refresh' store refurbishment programme," Nomura said.

The broker also expects Tesco to present a review of its property portfolio. "We expect Tesco to signal a phased reduction in its rate of UK space growth with a shift in emphasis away from large hypers towards smaller formats where it under-indexes versus the market. Sensibly, we expect multi-channel to be a key consideration with the potential to offer the UK's most convenient click-and-collect network," Nomura said.

Panmure Gordon has been doing a bit of shopping disguised as research - or possibly the other way round - and it thinks Tesco's turnaround plan has a good chance of success. "However, as always, execution is key. Retailing is all about doing 1,000 small things correctly, the devil is in the detail, not in the Powerpoint presentation," the broker observes.

Press reports suggest that a number of key shareholders have put pressure on Tesco to abandon its attempt to crack the USA. Investment analyst Sam Hart at Charles Stanley reckons the US operations' losses will reduce from £186m last year to £120m. "The lower level of losses reflects a combination of a stronger sales performance and improved supply chain efficiency," Hart said.

"Asia is forecast to report a 22% rise in operating profit to £695m. South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and China are expected to have been the growth drivers. The under-performing business in Japan has been put up for sale and an update on the disposal process is anticipated," Hart said.

"Europe is forecast to report a 9% increase in operating profit to £575m. Good growth in Poland, Turkey and Slovakia is expected to have more than offset softness in Ireland and Hungary," Hart added.

Turning its attention to the fourth quarter trading update from Marks & Spencer (M&S), Panmure Gordon is forecasting LFL sales growth of 0.6% on the General Merchandise side, and notes that market forecasts for this metric are all over the place; the median forecast is for a 0.5% decline, with the range running from -1% at the bottom end to +1% at the top.

"For Food, we forecast like-for-like sales growth of 2.3%, with consensus on +1.5% (range 1-2%). We expect no change to the FY2012E [fiscal 2012] UK gross margin guidance of -40p [minus four-tenths of a percentage point], which management said in January would be mitigated by other cost savings - any slip up here will get a very unsympathetic reception," Panmure Gordon reckons.


Monday April 16

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (EU) (10:00)
Business Inventories (US) (13:30)
Manufacturing Inventories (US) (15:00)
Retail Sales (US) (13:45)
Retail Sales Inventories (US) (15:15)

FINALS
APR Energy, DDD Group, Specialist Energy Group

IMSS
Amec, Dragon Oil

EGMS
Metal-Tech Ltd.

AGMS
Sagentia Group

Tuesday April 17

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Building Permits (US) (13:30)
Capacity Utilisation (US) (16:15)
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (EU) (10:00)
Housing Starts (US) (13:30)
Industrial Production (US) (16:15)
New Car Registrations (EU) (10:00)
Wholesale Price Index (GER) (07:00)
ZEW Survey (EU) (10:00)
ZEW Survey (GER) (10:00)

FINALS
M. P. Evans Group, NetDimensions Holding Ltd. (DI), Northbridge Industrial Services, Walker Greenbank

ANNUAL REPORT
G4S, Huntsworth

IMSS
Man Group

EGMS
JSC Sitronics GDR (Reg S)

AGMS
Baronsmead VCT 4, Global Ports Investments GDR (REG S), Herald Inv Trust, Perform Group, Tiszai Chemical Group GDR (Reg S)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Burberry Group, Daily Mail and General Trust, Marks & Spencer Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Price Index  (09:30)
Retail Price Index (09:30)

Wednesday April 18

INTERIMS
Spirit Pub Company

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
News Corp. 'A' Shares, News Corp. 'B' Shares

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Albemarle & Bond Holdings, James Halstead, NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FINALS
Hightex Group, Integra Group GDR (Reg S), OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works GDR (Reg S), Tesco

ANNUAL REPORT
Dialight

IMSS
Computacenter, GKN, Hunting

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Old Mutual

AGMS
Aberdeen Smaller Companies High Income Trust, Athelney Trust, Bunzl, Dialight, Dragon Oil, Drax Group, Hunting, Moneysupermarket.com Group, Octopus Titan VCT 5, Promethean World, Zenergy Power

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Speedy Hire

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
claimant count rate (00:00)
Unemployment Rate (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Baronsmead VCT 5, Lancashire Holdings

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aga Rangemaster Group, Aggreko, Arbuthnot Banking Group, BAE Systems, BBA Aviation, British Smaller Companies VCT 2, Burford Capital Ltd., Capita, Clarke (T.), Costain Group, Downing Planned Exit VCT 2011 (General Shares), Downing Planned Exit VCT 2011 (Low Carbon Shares), Downing Planned Exit VCT 2011 (Structured Shares), Dunedin Income Growth Inv Trust, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, International Personal Finance, Johnson Service Group, Kazakhmys, Legal & General Group, Microgen, Molins, Norish Units, office2office, Old Mutual, Petrofac Ltd., Resolution Ltd., Secure Trust Bank, Smith & Nephew, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, StatPro Group, Taylor Wimpey, Tullow Oil, Unite Group, Vitec Group

Thursday April 19

INTERIMS
Debenhams, WH Smith

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
IndigoVision Group

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Caterpillar Inc.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Leading Indicators (US) (15:00)
Philadelphia Fed Index (US) (15:00)

Q4
OAO Severstal GDR (Reg S)

GMS
Telfonica Czech Republic A.S. GDR (144A/REG S)

FINALS
HydroDec Group, International Public Partnerships Ltd., OAO Severstal GDR (Reg S), Phaunos Timber Fund Ltd., Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings, Spectra Systems Corporation

ANNUAL REPORT
LSL Property Services, PV Crystalox Solar

IMSS
Hammerson, Hargreaves Lansdown, International Power, Lavendon Group, Persimmon

EGMS
Mwana Africa, Ryanair Holdings

AGMS
African Barrick Gold , Amec, Anglo American, Anglo Pacific Group, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SPA, BlackRock World Mining Trust, Corio NV, Devro, Electric Word, Hammerson, JSC Halyk Bank GDR (Reg S), Ladbrokes, LSL Property Services, Persimmon, Plant Health Care, Rio Tinto, Stadium Group, Sterling Energy, SThree

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
E2V Technologies, OJSC Novolipetsk Steel GDS (Reg S), SABMiller

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Low & Bonar

Friday April 20

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Abcam, AdEPT Telecom, Brooks Macdonald Group, Craneware, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1, Matrix Income & Growth 2 VCT, Smiths Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Personal Assets Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)
IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)
IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)
Producer Price Index (GER) (07:00)

GMS
Summit Corporation

FINALS
Alpha Bank GDR (Reg S) USD, National Bank of Greece ADR, Shaft Sinkers Holdings

ANNUAL REPORT
Travis Perkins

IMSS
Spectris, William Hill

AGMS
Capital & Counties Properties , Mediwatch, Rotork, Spectris

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Record

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Access Intelligence, Heavitree Brewery, Heavitree Brewery 'A' Shares

Q1
African Barrick Gold


JH

Related share prices
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) share price
Tesco (TSCO) share price