Tuesday preview: William Hill and Hiscox face first quarterly hurdle

Tuesday continues a quiet week, as a slight lull in the corporate calendar and dearth of major economic announcements combine before the action warms up later in the week with a busy 'Super Thursday' from the Bank of England.

Retail rebound?

The British Retail Consortium unveils its retail sales monitor for April, following a dip of 0.2% year on year in March after marginal gains of 0.4% in February and 0.1% in January.

April's report is likely to show improved year-on-year retail sales in April compared to March, said economist Howard Archer at IHS Markit, as a later Easter this year compared to 2016 should benefit last month.

"There also may have been some help to sales coming from warmer weather supporting sales of summer clothing at the start of the month," he said, a trend that was evident in last week's CBI distributive trades survey and in Monday's Visa consumer spending report.

"However, it is the underlying picture coming from the BRC survey that will be key given missed surveys released so far for April consumer spending."

William Hill should clear the first fence

At its final results in late February, William Hill boasted of strong trading for the first month and a half of the year, with "positive trends" in the amount punters were betting in all four of its divisions, which bodes well for its first quarter results.

The bookmaker said online was particularly encouraging, with sportsbook wagering up 8% and gaming net revenue up 5%, including UK sports wagering up 10% and UK gaming net revenue up 8%.

UBS said its 'Evidence Lab' data suggested the rest of the first quarter may have seen incrementally more positive trends than those above and for the full year, leading it to expect sportsbook wagering of 12% and gaming net revenue growth of 6%.

In Australia and the US, analysts forecast double digit wagering growth.

UBS also previewed Hiscox, ahead of its own first-quarter results, with analysts expecting a focus on gross written premiums, the investment return and an update on the claims backdrop.

"In terms of GWP, we expect 7% growth (in constant currencyies) at the group level driven by 12% growth in retail, a 7% contraction in London market and 10% growth in reinsurance (this will drop out at the net level as it is driven by Kiskadee).

"We expect an investment return of 0.4% non-annualised. As for the claims backdrop, there have been several smaller US losses and Cyclone Debbie, but we expect these to be contained to cat budgets at Hiscox in the quarter."

Tuesday 09 May

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (GER) (06:00)
Current Account (GER) (07:00)
Industrial Production (GER) (07:00)
Wholesales Inventories (US) (15:00)

FINALS
Centralnic Group, TyraTech Inc, Water Intelligence

INTERIMS
Cambria Automobiles, Treatt

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Grafton Group, Hiscox, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, William Hill

ANNUAL REPORT
Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings (DI)

AGMS
Amerisur Resources, Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund Ltd (DI), Capital & Regional, Cello Group, Centaur Media, Frontier Smart Technologies Group Limited, Goals Soccer Centres, Grafton Group Units, Henderson High Income Trust, IFG Group, Macfarlane Group, Non-Standard Finance, Paysafe Group , Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings (DI), Rightmove, Savills, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, William Hill

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Fisher (James) & Sons

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
IBM Corp.