Week ahead: Chinese data in focus

China will take over as the main driver of markets - barring any surprises - over the coming week, with investors waiting on the release of a raft of economic indicators which might help them to gauge the health of Asia´s largest economy.

First out, on Sunday, will be the latest figures on the country´s foreign exchange reserves, a key report for those investing on foreign exchange markets.

It will be followed by a string of other statistical releases spread over the course of the rest of the week, with the latest credit and bank lending numbers due out on Thursday and data on trends in fixed income investment set to be released in the following session.

Stateside, the week´s main releases will arrive on Friday, in the form of the latest reports on retail sales and producer prices, together with a preliminary reading on consumer confidence for the month of July, courtesy of the University of Michigan.

In the UK, industrial production and international trade figures will both be out on Tuesday.

Lastly, in the euro area Italian, German and Spanish consumer prices will be published towards the end of the week.

Monday August 08

INTERIMS
Telit Communications

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Industrial Production (GER) (07:00)

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Mobeus Income & Growth 2 Vct

AGMS
Albion Venture Capital Trust, Alpha Real Trust Ltd., Lekoil Ltd (DI), Obtala Resources Ltd , Tau Capital

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Telit Communications

Tuesday August 09

INTERIMS
Legal & General Group, Quarto Group Inc., Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Standard Life, Synthomer

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
IBM Corp.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (GER) (07:00)
Wholesales Inventories (US) (15:00)

Q2
Quarto Group Inc.

Q3
GW Pharmaceuticals

FINALS
Hargreaves Services

AGMS
Downing One VCT

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
BRC Sales Monitor (00:01)

Wednesday August 10

INTERIMS
New Europe Property Investments, Prudential, Sampo OYJ, Stock Spirits Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)
MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Q2
Centamin (DI)

FINALS
Trafalgar New Homes

AGMS
Majestic Wine, Rurelec, Triad Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Investec, Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Inv Trust, National Grid, Ventus 2 VCT, Ventus 2 VCT 'C' Shares, Ventus 2 VCT D Shs, Ventus VCT

Thursday August 11

INTERIMS
Aldermore Group, Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI), Hastings Group Holdings , Ophir Energy

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aberdeen UK Tracker Trust, AstraZeneca, Direct Line Insurance Group, Fevertree Drinks, Fresnillo, GKN, Globaldata, IMI, Informa, Law Debenture Corp., Lloyds Banking Group, LSL Property Services, Man Group, Maven Income and Growth VCT 5, McColl's Retail Group , Merlin Entertainments , Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Mobeus Income & Growth 4 Vct, Octopus Titan VCT , Rentokil Initial, Rio Tinto, RM, RSA Ins 7te%pf, Spirent Communications, St. Modwen Properties, Vesuvius, Virgin Money Holdings (UK)

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline, Picton Property Income Ltd, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B'

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q2
Grupo Clarin SA GDR (Reg S), Pagegroup

DRILLING REPORT
Glencore

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Direct Line Insurance Group, Manchester & London Investment Trust

EGMS
CIC Gold Group Limited (DI), Wishbone Gold

AGMS
Boxhill Technologies , CIC Gold Group Limited (DI), Federal Bank Ltd (The) GDR (REGS), Wishbone Gold

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Dairy Crest Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Ashtead Group, BT Group, Ensor Holdings, Greene King, Hayward Tyler Group, Iomart Group, Maven Income And Growth VCT 6 , New Century AIM VCT, Octopus Apollo VCT, PZ Cussons, RPC Group

Friday August 12

INTERIMS
FBD Holdings

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Safestore Holdings, Secure Income Reit

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Merchants Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Business Inventories (US) (15:00)
Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)
Producer Price Index (US) (13:30)
Retail Sales (US) (13:30)
Retail Sales Less Autos (US) (13:30)
U. of Michigan Confidence (Prelim) (US) (15:00)

ANNUAL REPORT
Dart Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd

AGMS
Central Rand Gold Ltd, China Nonferrous Gold Limited (DI), iEnergizer Ltd., Taihua

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Volution Group (WI)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Amati VCT , Aquatic Foods Group , Babcock International Group, Cropper (James), D4T4 Solutions, Downing One VCT , F&C Global Smaller Companies, Invesco Asia Trust, Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust , SABMiller, Speedy Hire, Vedanta Resources, Walker Crips Group