Week Ahead: Retailers take centre stage

There is a heavy retail influence this week, with the likes of Primark owner AB Foods, Costa Coffee owner Whitbread and DIY outfits Kingfisher and Home Retail Group reporting.

Morgan Stanley has thrown cold water on the barbecue and housing recovery–inspired success enjoyed recently by B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF).

The US broker has downgraded its view on the Anglo-French DIY chain to ‘underweight’, which it claims makes it only the second out of 23 brokers that cover Kingfisher to have a negative view.

Meanwhile, UBS is expecting Kingfisher to unveil pre-tax profits of £37.3mln, diluted earnings per share (EPS) of 11.5p and a full-year dividend of 3.2p.

“This will have been a game of two quarters with Q1 trading profit (already reported) falling by 29% given a material impact of colder weather on seasonal sales in March and early April,” UBS said.

Home Retail, which runs DIY chain Homebase but which is better known as the Argos operator, is issuing a second quarter interim management statement.

Oriel Securities thinks the company will deliver positive performances within both its businesses. “Favourable trading conditions and positive retail data in recent weeks support this view and in the short-term the shares should perform. However, fundamental concerns on the long-term margin structure remains,” the broker said.

Other retailers set to report this week include Dunelm, Thorntons, Sports Direct International, Darty and Ocado.

Source: Proactive Investors
http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/market_reports/60833/week-ahead-retailers-take-centre-stage-0000.html