Wednesday preview: UK unemployment, MPC minutes, Hikma

In the absence of any announcements expected from FTSE 100 companies attention may be focused on economic data on Wednesday.

Claimant count unemployment for February is expected to show a small rise, following on from the 23,500 increase in January. Forecasting agency IHS Global Insight is tipping that the February level will rise by 8,000 to reach a 13-year high of 1.644m. The claimant count unemployment rate is tipped to grow to 5.1% from 5.0% in January.

Unemployment, as measured using the International Labour Organisation (ILO) methodology, is expected to show little change in the three months to January from the three months to December.

Though you might not credit it, given the press coverage of bankers' remuneration, bonus payments have been on the slide which is putting a cap on the growth in earnings. Expectations are that average weekly earnings will have shown just a 0.9% year on year gain in the three months to January.

The minutes from the most recent meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be released in the morning. As expected, the MPC kept its key lending rates unchanged in March and held firm on its decision to turn the Quantitative Easing (QE) tap off. In February the decisions on interest rates and QE were unanimous and not much has changed in the interim period to suggest that unanimity will have been broken this time round.

On the corporate front FTSE 250 company Hikma Pharmaceuticals is the biggest company of those scheduled to declare results. The generic drugs maker is expected to announce pre-tax profit of £58.91m on sales of £396.56m, though broker KBC Peel Hunt thinks Hikma will beat market expectations. It predicts the Jordan-based company will make $93.5m (around £62m) in pre-tax profits on revenue of $633.9m (around £417m).

Charles Stanley is even more bullish on the revenue front, forecasting sales of $640m, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $143m.

'US generics are expected to have continued the momentum identified over H1 [first half] 2009 throughout H2 [second half],' Charles Stanley said. 'Given the diversified nature of its business by geography across the region we would expect the company's regional sales performance to exceed that of the market more generally. Interest may also centre on US generics where restrictions in antibiotics may have played into the company's hands,' the broker added.

Panmure Gordon is another broker ahead of market consensus on revenue expectations. It is predicting sales of $648.5m and net earnings of $78.9m, giving earnings per share of 42 cents.

'Key variables will be the performance of the US generics business which we expect to continue to see signs of recovery, with margins pushing towards 13.3% in FY [fiscal year] 2010 and above 15% by FY 2013. The Injectables business is a big unknown, with competition in the cephalosporin market remaining keen but comparables ease,' Panmure reckons.

Inkjet printing technology group Xaar said in January that trading for the fourth quarter of 2009 had been in line with expectations. Investment analysts have pencilled in a pre-tax profit for 2009 of £2.66m, down from £4.35m in 2008. Sales are tipped to edge up to £42.67m from £42.02m the year before.

Broker Panmure Gordon remains concerned about the group's reliance on China, which accounts for nearly half of sales revenue. The company's platform 1 technology continues to form the bulk of revenues, the broker said. 'Lower margins here have been caused by increased competition and higher than expected customer support costs,' Panmure Gordon notes. 'Although well flagged, we believe the latter has increased throughout the year and this clearly needs to be monitored,' the broker said.

INTERIMS
Ultimate Finance Group, Neovia Financial

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Stagecoach Theatre Arts

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Abcam, Alternative Networks, Begbies Traynor Group, BrainJuicer Group, Go-Ahead Group, Interior Services, Share Plc, St Ives, Tristel, Welsh Industrial Inv Trust

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B'

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Alpha Pyrenees Trust Ltd., Queen's Walk Investment Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Producer Price Index(US) (13:30)

GMS
Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 1, The Directors Dealing Inv Trust

FINALS
Avocet Mining, Cyprotex, Derwent London, Frutarom, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Manganese Bronze, Mecom Group, MirLand Development Corporation, NEOVIA Financial, Playtech, Sigma Capital, smartFOCUS, TEG Group, Xaar

ANNUAL REPORT
International Personal Finance, Management Consulting Group, Taylor Wimpey

EGMS
Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 2, Maven Income and Growth VCT , Maven Income and Growth VCT 2

AGMS
Chemring Group, Domino Printing, Helius Energy

TRADING STATEMENTS
International Personal Finance, Management Consulting

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
BoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30)
Claimant Count Rate (09:30)
Unemployment Rate (09:30)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Producer Prices Index (US) (12:30)
Bank of Japan Target Rate (JPN)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Income & Growth VCT, Income & Growth VCT 'S' Shares, Unilever

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Alternative Networks, BlackRock World Mining Trust, Braime Ord, Chemring Group, Computacenter, Dairy Farm International (Singapore), Hansteen Holdings, Hongkong Land Holding Ltd. (Singapore), HSBC Holdings, Jardine Matheson (Singapore), Jardine Strategic (Singapore), JD Wetherspoon, Lancashire Holdings, Microgen, Shore Capital, Signet Global Fixed Income Strategies GBP Shares, Standard Life, TF & JH Braime, Thomas Cook Group, XP Power