The Week Ahead: Spotlight on turnaround attempts at Thomas Cook

Today

Aveva kicks off the week with its preliminary results after the software firm said in April it was on course to meet expectations thanks to a good performance over the second half. At the same time the group's boss, Richard Longdon, noted its Chinese unit had recovered and was "gaining real momentum", so further news on its operations in the country are likely to be of interest.

Results/Updates: Aveva, Entertainment One, Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Phoenix IT.

Tomorrow

After the recent Queen's Speech introduced a number of plans for the water industry, the Square Mile will be looking for further comments from Pennon on the measures when the utility releases its preliminary results on Tuesday.

In terms of the numbers, Liberum Capital's scribblers expect the group to have managed an operating profit of £261.6m, with its South West Water business seeing a 5 per cent year-on-year rise in earnings to £198.5m.

Given Topps Tiles has already revealed that like-for-like revenues over the second quarter dropped by 4.8 per cent, the market is pretty well informed ahead of the retailer's interim results tomorrow.

Numis Securities' James Dilks-Hopper is looking for a pre-tax profit over the first half of the year of £6.1m and expects like-for-like sales for the second six months to improve, largely thanks to the recent poor weather persuading homeowners to make internal improvements to their houses.

Results/Updates: Acal, Brewin Dolphin, Datong, De La Rue, Iomart, McKay Securities, Pennon, Renold, Scapa, Topps Tiles, Torotrak, Volex, VP and Wolseley.

Wednesday

The rush of updates over the last couple of weeks from the utilities comes to an end on Wednesday with Severn Trent's preliminary results. Analysts from Liberum are expecting few shocks, with their pre-tax profit forecast of £267m pretty close to the City's consensus, and they believe earnings-per-share will have dropped 20 per cent year-on-year to 84.7p a share.

Another group in focus on Wednesday will be Sportingbet, which is releasing its figures for the third quarter. With the small-cap online gambling company announcing last week it was forking out €17.2m (£13.7m) in back taxes to Spain, Deutsche Bank's Richard Carter thinks this will be one contributor to what should prove a "mixed" update.

The scribbler is expecting a 24 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to £10.4m, although he says a plus point should be a strong earnings performance from Australia.

Results/Updates: Severn Trent, Sportingbet and Telford Homes.

Thursday

Last week ended up being rather a sunny one for Thomas Cook, with the troubled tour operator announcing both the sale of its Indian operations and the appointment of Harriet Green as its new chief executive.

However, the travel industry outsider – who is joining from electronics distributor Premier Farnell – won't take up the role until the end of July, so it will be interim chief executive Sam Weihagen who is heading up its half-year results on Thursday.

The company has already revealed that it lost £262.7m over the first six months of the year, so the key thing for investors will be the latest news on its turnaround attempts as well as comments on recent trading.

Another in focus will be Kingfisher. The B&Q owner's first-quarter numbers are expected to show the recent poor weather has dampened its performance in the UK, and Jefferies' James Grzinic is predicting overall sales to have dropped by close to 4 per cent, leading to trading profit falling to £167m.

Results/Updates: Fuller Smith & Turner, Halfords, Kingfisher, Tate & Lyle and Thomas Cook.

Friday

It is a quiet end to the week, but one company reporting is Harvey Nash. House broker Numis Securities believes the recruiter – which is announcing its trading statement for the first quarter – will have seen a positive start to the year, although analyst Steve Woolf notes that he is cautious over the outlook for staffing fees over the full 12 months.

Results/Updates: Harvey Nash.

Economics Diary

TODAY: Hometrack house price survey; US markets closed for Memorial Day.

TOMORROW CBI realised sales.

WEDNESDAY: Consumer credit data; Eurozone economic sentiment indicator; Eurozone M3 money supply; M4 money supply; Mortgage approvals; Net lending to individuals; US pending home sales.

THURSDAY: German retail sales; German unemployment data; GfK Consumer Confidence; US first-quarter GDP (second estimate); US unemployment data.

FRIDAY: Eurozone manufacturing PMI; Eurozone unemployment rate; Manufacturing PMI; US construction spending; US ISM PMI index; US non-farm payrolls.