The Week Ahead: All on eyes on Centrica as British Gas owner unveils its interim results

All on eyes will be on Centrica today as the British Gas owner unveils its interim results. British Gas this month called on the services of new managing director Mark Hodges to take over at the energy provider. He joins in June and will hope to take the tiller with wind in the company’s sails. Meanwhile, the gaming software firm Playtech, set up by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, will update on its first-quarter trading.

Costa and Premier Inn owner Whitbread is expected to please the market when it posts annual results tomorrow. The rise of the coffee chain and growth in the regional hotel market are forecast to have buoyed the market, and the City expects full-year pre-tax profits to jump 34 per cent to £478m. The group, which has nearly 60,000 rooms under the Premier Inn brand, advertised by comedian Lenny Henry, said in February it expects its profits will be at the top end of City expectations.

Meanwhile the oil giant BP will update on how it has fared in the first quarter amid low oil prices, and Standard Chartered will update on its first-quarter performance.

Wednesday brings annual results from Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail. The City is expecting the sheds-to-sleeping bags retail group to post a 13 per cent rise in full-year profits to £130m, despite tough trading, driven by improved margins and tight cost control.

The City will hope the business did not pay dearly for an IT glitch which hit a key trading period on Good Friday, preventing card payments being taken over a two-hour period.

In Dundee, Alliance Trust hosts its crunch shareholder meeting as chief Katherine Garrett-Cox attempts to fend off the activist investor Elliott Advisors’ attempted shake-up.

The state-backed lenders are likely to hit the headlines at the end of the week. On Thursday Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to turn in lower first-quarter profits, down 45 per cent to £904m, as a result of higher disposal costs and other charges. On Friday, Lloyds is expected to have benefited from a recovering economy with a lift in underlying profits in the first quarter to just over £2bn.