UK investors look mostly to corporate results

The London stock market will zero in on a batch of corporate results this week to provide direction, while a reading on British economic growth will give an additional focus, analysts said. The FTSE 100 index of leading London shares closed at 5,312.6 points Friday, down 0.62 percent or 33.2 points from the previous week.
That was despite chalking up a 0.82-percent daily gain on Friday.
"There's a flood of results later in the week," said Alex Scott, analyst with Seven Investment Management. "We're going to get information from a number of sectors that will give us a feel about what's going on in the broad economy."
First up on the corporate calendar is BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified miner, reporting its preliminary annual results on Wednesday.
"Given that it's one of the mining groups which have been amongst the biggest contributors to the FTSE's rise so far this year, that is one that will be quite closely watched," Scott said.
Hilton Group posts its first-half results on Thursday. The hotels group might give some insight into the financial impact of the London bomb blasts in July.
"A company like Hilton is very international but has some presence in the UK so no doubt will have something to say on the subject," Scott said.
"People are going to be watching what comes out from all those companies exposed to the UK tourism industry for any early signs of what the eventual hit is likely to be."
Results for the first half of the year were also due on Thursday from Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus and business services firm Rentokil, while engineering group Invensys publishes its first-quarter figures.
On Friday, British advertising giant WPP Group releases first-half numbers.
On the economic data front, a crucial release is Friday's second estimate of British gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the second quarter of 2005.
The economy grew at 0.4 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, according to initial estimates from the National Statistics office last month. Scott added: "The bigger question is... how much of a slowdown are we seeing in the third and fourth quarters?
"There's a lot of doubts amongst economists about whether the Bank of England's relatively rosy outlook will be the scenario that we actually see."
The central bank predicted this week that there would be a relatively modest slowing in economic growth this year, followed by a re-acceleration, he added.