Friday preview: Wetherspoons, Smiths Group results due

(Sharecast News) - Friday will mark a much quieter end to the week after a raft of central bank policy announcements, with interim results due from JD Wetherspoon and diversified engineer Smiths Group. As far as pub group Wetherspoons is concerned, Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it started the year with encouraging like-for-like sales growth, which picked up pace towards the end of the first half.

"However, with costs higher than anticipated, management now expects profit to come in below the levels seen at the same point last year, with consensus forecasts looking for an 8% decline in operating profit to £60m," he said.

"Full-year profits are also expected to fall slightly if sales momentum remains unchanged, so investors will be looking for a steer on trading in the second half so far. Recent data suggests pub sales in the wider market have continued to grow, led by higher prices rather than footfall. But rising fuel and energy prices in the wake of the war with Iran could cause a further squeeze on the group's margins and its customers' spending power, so some caution is to be expected."

On the macro front, UK public sector net borrowing figures for February are due at 0700 GMT, while CBI industrial trends orders for March are out at 1100 GMT.

Overnight, China will release its loan prime rates, which are expected to remain unchanged.