The Week Ahead: London's mining giants are in focus this week

Rio Tinto and Anglo American have finals on Thursday and Friday respectively, while Glencore has a production report on Wednesday

London’s mining giants are in focus this week, against a backdrop of falling commodity prices and weak growth prospects.

Rio Tinto and Anglo American have finals on Thursday and Friday respectively, while Glencore has a production report on Wednesday. The outlook for all three is bleak. Heath Jansen at Citi believes Anglo is set to load itself up with debt to maintain its dividend for the next two years, while Glencore, which has been trading at all-time lows, is likely to slash spending. Rio Tinto is Mr Jansen’s top pick in the sector thanks to its attractive yield, but is still the best of a bad bunch.

Today sees finals from Randgold Resources, while HSS Hire is expected to begin trading. Afren, Bellway, Cable & Wireless and Icap all have trading updates tomorrow, while Babcock, Catlin and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels are due finals.

The consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has full-year figures out mid-week. It will be the first time management have spoken since the demerger of Indivior, the company’s former pharmaceuticals division. Charles Pick at Numis is keen to hear about any potential deals, saying: “Given the seeming haste with which Indivior was demerged there could be some major M&A quite shortly going forward.”

Telecity has full-year figures on Wednesday, as does Tullow Oil. The housebuilder Redrow puts out interim figures, while Thomas Cook, WS Atkins and Electrocomponents will all update the market.

Informa, Lancashire Holdings, Morgan Advanced Materials and Shire have full-year updates on Thursday. Darty, Imperial Tobacco, SSE, Tate & Lyle and Zoopla will all publish management statements. Bank of England inflation forecasts are also due. Investec says: “Market watchers wait to hear if Governor Carney has put rate hike plans on to the back burner amidst the possibility of negative inflation numbers.”

Friday sees finals from Rolls-Royce Holdings. Fourth-quarter eurozone GDP figures are also due. Credit Suisse expects a slight improvement, with growth rising to 0.3 per cent from 0.2 per cent in the last quarter.