Therefore it is no surprise that of the 14 brokers covering the stock, not one has a buy rating on it.Results: Full year - Punch Taverns. Interims - 3i Group; BT Group; BTG; Dairy Crest; Invensys; Peacock; Radstone Technology; Royal & Sun Alliance; SABmiller; Scottish Power.FRIDAY: Results: Full year -IDMos Interims - Whitehead Mann.. No amount of spinning could save David Blunkett from the chop, but the fallen Work and Pensions Secretary's former business associates are making an effort to put a brave face on recent events. DNA Bioscience, the paternity-testing firm at the heart of the scandal that prompted Blunkett's resignation, has decided to employ a "crisis management" PR firm to repair its tattered image. The company, of which Blunkett was a director and a shareholder, has brought in an outfit called Luther Pendragon in an effort to convince us that it's an ethical and successful institution. It's an interesting call, since Luther Pendragon has a track record of spinning for New Labour's controversial business associates.
Former clients include the Hinduja brothers, who were embroiled in the downfall of Peter Mandelson. The troubled group has become more stable in recent years and cost-reduction programmes are beginning to come through. Nevertheless, Invensys remains highly indebted and there is still a long way to go before March 2008, the first opportunity to refinance the company. With BskyB poised to enter the broadband market following its recent acquisition of Easynet, BT needs to act to increase the number of its retail subscribers.Invensys' second quarter results will be presented for the first time by the engineer's new chief executive, Ulf Henriksson. The stock's performance has been somewhat lacklustre of late.
Williams de Bro?elieves the most important numbers for investors to look out for are underlying sales growth, the interim dividend and the rate of growth of BT's retail broadband subscriptions. The broker hopes to see the group unveil sales of £4.8bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £1.4bn. It predicts BT will increase its interim dividend by 8 per cent to 4.2p a share. Last week Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said: "We are still of the view that an E.ON bid at 600p plus for ScottishPower is more likely than not."As for ScottishPower's first half results, the City forecasts a solid performance as rising power prices drive profit growth.