Friday preview: Lloyds' turn on the stand

Lloyds Banking finally gets its turn at bat on Friday now that sector peers Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have left the crease.After both peers delivered better than expected figures the pressure will be on Lloyds' chief executive Eric Daniels to justify the £2.3m bonus he elected not to take. Investment analysts are expecting Lloyds to announce a pre-tax loss of £7.4bn on revenue of £22.6bn. Daniels sounded optimistic in November, noting that the run rate of overall impairments slowed in the third quarter of 2009, and as a result 'we continue to expect impairments to fall significantly in the second half of 2009, compared to the first half of the year.' Japanese broker Nomura thinks the full year impairment charge will be £24.2bn, with £5.6bn occurring in the fourth quarter.William Hill should produce good figures tomorrow after already reporting healthy trading in the final three months of 2009. Last month, Hill said it saw good trading through the balance of 2009 and gross win margins for the full year returned to the normal 17-18% range. Group net revenue rose 6% in Q4 and is expected to be up 4% for the full-year. Earnings before interest and tax should be around £250m.What it says about the current year going forward will set the tone. Rival Ladbrokes recently cautioned that revenues so far this year were down by 4.6% due to horse races and football matches being postponed by the severe weather. Online estate agency Rightmove recently upped its profit forecasts for 2010 after it said it saw a 'substantial' increase in average spend per advertiser. The group said it is confident that 2010 profits will be above current market expectations, subject to no significant change in market conditions. 'This is based on the higher average spend per advertiser achieved in January, evidence from our customers of our continued value for money, and the predictably of our subscription model,' the group said.But Rightmove faces the prospect of internet giant Google moving into its space and shareholders will want reassurance on how it intends to deal with this very great threat.Friday February 26INTERIMSHelphire Group, Ricardo GroupINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEACM Shipping, NCC GroupQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEBankers Inv Trust, City of London Inv Trust, Equity Partnership Income Shares, ING UK Real Estate Income Trust Ltd.INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSChicago PMI (US) (14:45)Consumer Price Index (JPN) (23:30)Industrial Production (JPN) (05:30)U. of Michigan Confidence (US) (15:00)Gross Domestic Product (US) (13:30)Personal Consumption (US) (13:30)Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)NAPM Milwaukee (US) (15:00)Import Prices (GER) Consumer Prices (EU) (10:00)Consumer Prices (GER)Q4Frontline, Lancashire HoldingsGMSYour SpaceFINALSBayer AG, Cinpart, Davis Service Group, Frontline, Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings, Lancashire Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Rightmove, Serco Group, William HillANNUAL REPORT2 ergo GroupEGMSLED InternationalAGMS2 ergo Group, Brewin Dolphin, Formation GroupUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSGDP (09:30)GfK Consumer Confidence Survey (00:01)Private Consumption (09:30)Government Spending (09:30)Exports and Imports (09:30)