The Week Ahead: Mining boom to boost earnings at BHP Billiton

It has been boom time for the heavyweight miners, and analysts said investors should be looking forward to BHP Billiton's full-year results today. Charles Cooper at Evolution Securities is predicting a 56 per cent boost in earnings before interest and taxation in the second half over the first, as commodity prices soar and demand continues to grow from emerging markets. "While we expect BHP will deliver a healthy set of results, next year is also likely to be strong," he said, adding it was his top pick for the sector.

Every week the miners seem to be involved in some sort of M&A activity, witness Xstrata going after Lonmin last week and the ongoing shenanigans between Kazakhmys and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. But the big one is BHP's pursuit, albeit not at high speed, of Rio Tinto. Investors would welcome an update.

Ryan Kneale, market analyst at the City bookmaker BetsForTraders.com, commented: "All eyes will be on BHP Billiton as traders attempt to 'weigh up' whether they will be successful in their proposed takeover of rival miners Rio Tinto."

Today: This has been an intriguing month for the headhunter Michael Page International, as it revealed that it has been in talks for three months over a deal with the world's largest recruiter, Adecco. It was particularly interesting last week, when Michael Page said it had rejected several proposals, which valued the group at £1.3bn, but Adecco was not walking away as it thinks a deal can be done.

The announcements came out last week as the UK group wanted to close the matter before it announced its first-half today.

The credit crunch has hit recruiters as firms have reduced headcount to bring down costs and many have frozen hiring. Michael Page believes it is diverse enough to shrug off the worst of it, but Julian Cater of Collins Stewart tipped the results "to show evidence of further slowdown". He expects further slowing of growth in the international business and the UK moving into negative territory. The group has already disclosed first-half gross profits of £293m. He fears the shares could suffer further in the wake of the talks ending should there be any future earnings downgrades.

Results: Full year: BHP Billiton. Half year: Michael Page International; Hill & Smith Holdings; Raymarine.

Tomorrow: While the housebuilder and traditional property stocks have all suffered this year, better things are expected from Mears Group, the social housing repairs and maintenance company. Mears has won a series of contracts this year as the market remains strong. Analysts believe that investors should be happy tomorrow.

Results: Full year: Tribal Group; Half year: Office2office; Primary Health Properties; Mears Group.

Wednesday: Wednesday is the day the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee minutes are released. There will be a large amount of interest on how the MPC members were split after holding rates steady earlier this month. David Page of Investec Securities said: "We suspect that despite an apparent dovish tone to the press conference, the sharp increase in July's CPI will have worried members enough to see Besley's hawkish stance joined, probably by Tucker or Sentance, seeing a 2-6-1 split."

Results: Half year: Xaar.

Thursday: The caped crusader looks like he has come to the rescue of Cineworld, not that it needed too much rescuing in the first place. The wet July meant punters headed for the flicks to see films including Prince Caspian, Wall-E and, of course, The Dark Knight, showcasing Heath Ledger's mesmerising final turn as the Joker. The slight fly in the ointment is the delay of the new Harry Potter, but Evos is predicting pre-tax profits of £9.6m and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of £21m.

The Latin American silver and gold producer Hochschild Mining is to release its half-year results on Thursday. The analysts are expecting this miner to be no different from its peers and post a strong 64 per cent revenue bump to $199m. Since last year, the group has doubled its mines to six and expanded from Peru to Argentina and Mexico as well. It also has a 40 per cent stake in Lakeshore Gold in Canada.

Results: Half year: Cineworld Group; Hochschild Mining; John Menzies; Amlin; Hunstworth; SIG; Eurasian Natural Resources; PV Crstalox Solar; Persimmon; ProStrakan Group.

Friday: It has not been a good year for the ratcatcher Rentokil Initial, and things aren't getting better in the short term. Andrew Darke of Evos said: "The interim results will make grim reading, as was flagged by the end July profit warning." The problem this time around is expected to be its parcel business CityLink, which is likely to have fallen from a £27m profit into a loss.

Other issues investors will want to look out for include problems at its washrooms operation and integration issues at acquisitions in Australia.

Results: Half year: Spectris; WPP Group; nCipher; Rentokil Initial.