Tuesday preview: Mears, inflation

The last year has been the proverbial roller-coaster ride for shareholders in social housing provider Mears, but that has been more due to things like the fall-out from the government's comprehensive spending review and the rapid demise of sector peers such as Connaught and Rok, rather than the company's own performance. Panmure Gordon argues that the company has made a solid start to the year. "Revenue visibility remains good while contract momentum has been positive," the broker said.The key aspects of Tuesday's interim results will, in the broker's view, be: public sector spending trends; any change in the competitive environment in the wake of Connaught's demise; domiciliary care post high profile residential care issues (e.g. Southern Cross)."At the H1 [half-year] stage a year ago the company delivered £13.2m adjusted PTP [pre-tax profit], we expect this to have risen to £15.5m," Panmure Gordon predicted.Switching to the economic view, UK consumer price inflation is expected to have increased to an annual rate of 4.3% in July, from June's 4.2%. Retail price index inflation is tipped to increase to 5.1%. INTERIMS CRH, Espirito Santo Financial Group SA, John Menzies, JSC Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan GDR (Reg S), Mears Group, Oakley Capital Investments Ltd. (DI), Quarto Group Inc., Resolution Ltd., Tribal Group, Vitec Group INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Balance of Trade (EU) (10:00) Building Permits (US) (13:30) Capacity Utilisation (US) (16:15) GDP (Flash Estimate) (EU) (10:00) Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00) Housing Starts (US) (13:30) Import and Export Price Indexes (US) (13:30) Industrial Production (US) (16:15) GMS Cyan Holdings IMSS Pennon Group EGMS Telecom Egypt SAE GDS (Regs) AGMS Black Sea Property Fund Ltd., Egypt Trust, World Trust Fund UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Consumer Price Index (09:29) Retail Price Index (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Elektron Technology INTERNATIONAL EARNINGS Dell. Mears