Banks will be keeping the analysts busy next week as a host of them report full year earnings figures.
Barclays is expected to show strong underlying growth, boosted by good progress in its retail business despite falling loan volumes.
Stockbroker Lehman Brothers expects pretax profits for the year, being released on Tuesday, will come in at £2.57billion against £1.92bn a year earlier.
Comments will be sought on the banks view of consolidation in the sector following Royal Bank of Scotlands takeover of its arch rival on the high street, NatWest.
IT group Sema is expected to post double-digit growth in both sales and profits when it reports full-year figures on Thursday.
Analysts are forecasting pretax profits of £93m against £75.3m at the same stage last year.
Stockbroker Greig Middleton said its telecoms operations were seen as a major driver for growth, especially with its SemaVision division already boasting Vodafone AirTouch and Telecom Italia Mobile as customers.
Newly knighted Martin Sorrell, founding chief executive of advertising giant WPP, will report full-year figures on Thursday.
Pretax profits are forecast to come in at £250m against £212.8m last time after a healthy year and ever-growing Internet consultancy commissions.
Analysts will be quizzing the group on whether it may be looking to float off its online division following the successful floats of Razorfish and Organic by US rival Omnicom.
Cadbury Schweppes will be adding fizz to the markets on Wednesday when it reports full year profits of about £645m against £600m a year earlier.
Dr Pepper and 7-Up are expected to have seen strong sales at the start of the year, while the sale of its soft drinks brands to Coca-Cola will have brought a one-off bubble to profits of about £400m.
Confectionery should also have put in a good performance and Greig Middleton analyst Andrew Fisher hoped for a taste of its plans to expand the division.
Alliance & Leicester is set to report pretax profits close on £500m when it unveils its annual results on Monday.
Ian Hodges, banking analyst of Barclays Stockbrokers, is looking to see profits of £494m, up from £455m last year.
He said: “The market will be looking for news of what A&L intends to do about filling its chief executive post and how it plans to move forward following its failed merger with the Bank of Ireland.”
Analysts are expecting marginally higher profits than last year from the Woolwich when it posts its annual results on Wednesday.
Barclays Stockbrokers is looking for pretax profits of £520m, compared with £496m last time but hoped for much better results in future years.
Mr Hodges said: “Its doing all the right things with its plans for telephone banking and e-banking but its very much a case of jam tomorrow.”
Abbey National is set to report a modest increase in pretax profits of £1.7bn in its annual results on Thursday.
Analysts are expecting little change on last years figure of £1.63bn.
Much of the growth seen coming through recently has had more to do with its involvement in operations such as consumer credit rather than core mortgage lending.
The Halifax is expected to report almost flat pre-tax profits when it unveils its annual results on Friday.
Barclays Stockbrokers is looking for profits of £1.77bn this time, compared with £1.74bn last year.
Analysts will be quizzing the management on the progress of its integration of the Birmingham Midshires, while its Greenfield.co internet banking venture will also be watched closely.
PA News 14/02/00
