Wednesday preview: Standard Chartered, GKN, L&G ...

Banks results season continues with emerging markets-focused Standard Chartered shuffling into the spotlight on Wednesday at the unholy time of 5:30am (London time).Japanese broker Nomura - quite possibly the only broker likely to be awake when the figures come out - predicts first half profit before tax of $3.4bn on revenues of $8.65bn. That is a more upbeat prediction of the bank's performance than Charles Stanley's estimate, which is for profit before tax of $3.12bn, and earnings per share of 104.9 cents. Charles Stanley predicts an interim dividend of 23.35 cents.Insurer Legal & General will report its interim results at the more typical hour of 7:00am, with Panmure Gordon forecasting operating profit, on an IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) basis, of £523m, down 4% year-on-year (yoy), while on a European embedded value (EEV) basis, it goes for operating profit of £563m."The net cash result should be a positive and we are forecasting £393m (+10%). In line with consensus, we anticipate that the interim dividend will be increased by 20% to 1.6p/share as cash cover eases towards the 2x cover medium-term target," Panmure Gordon said.Property listings web site Rightmove's interim results could prompt upgrades, Brewin Dolphin reckons, though with a "hold" rating on the stock the brokers view is that most of the growth potential is largely priced in."Slightly better customer numbers and stronger pricing (helped by increasing sales of additional services) are likely to be the key drivers. Our H1 [first half] estimate of £29.5m/20.2p [profit before tax and earnings per share, respectively] would equate to a H1:H2 weighting of 47:53, in line with typical seasonality," the broker said.Automotive and aerospace engineer GKN was down sharply the day before its interim results, which may not bode well.Credit Suisse, which is neutral on the stock, thinks the Driveline unit will have had a strong second quarter, "with ongoing robust growth from key customers such as BMW.""Also the Japanese supply chain issues continue to ease and we expect them to have disappeared as a negative YoY effect in early Q3, i.e. August. There will be some increased costs meeting this demand but overall we expect Driveline to be the key division why Credit Suisse numbers are slightly ahead of consensus," the Swiss bank said.As for the Aerospace division, "the recent increase in production rates from both Airbus and Boeing are only a real benefit in 2012," Credit Suisse notes. Charles Stanley forecasts GKN's revenue will rise to £2.67bn from £2.54bn, while adjusted earnings per share are tipped to rise to 10.5p from 9.85p."Overall we expect GKN to have delivered a solid performance boosted by Western European automotive sales over the period. Furthermore, margins are likely to have been boosted by strong performances in both Land Systems and Aerospace operations. This could provide management with the supportive evidence necessary to guide investors on margin trends over the medium term," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of equity research at Charles Stanley. Integrated oil companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell both trade in ex-dividend format on Wednesday morning which, all other things being equal, should knock around 17 points from the FTSE 100 value at the outset.On the UK economic front, the services Purchasing Managers Index for June is expected to ease to 53.2 from 53.9 in May. INTERIMSBank Pekao SA GDS (Reg S), Capital & Counties Properties , Ferrexpo, GKN, GlobeOp Financial Services SA (DI), Komercni Banka GDR (Level 1), Legal & General Group, Rightmove, Standard Life, Taylor Wimpey, Vernalis, Yamana Gold Inc.INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEBG Group, Brunner Inv Trust, Charter International, Core VCT IV, Core VCT V, Domino's Pizza UK & IRL, Edinburgh UK Tracker Trust, IDOX, Inchcape, Independent Inv Trust, Law Debenture Corp., Maven Income & Growth 3 VCT, Oxford Technology 4 VCT, Porvair, Rank Group, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Reed Elsevier, RIT Capital Partners, St James's Place, Throgmorton TrustQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEBP, Duet Real Estate Finance Ltd, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B'INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Composite (GER) (00:00)PMI Services (FRA) (08:15)PMI Services (GER) (08:55)PMI Composite (EU) (09:00)PMI Services (EU) (09:00)Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)ADP Employment Change (US) (13:15)Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)Factory Orders (US) (15:00)Goods Orders (US) (15:00)ISM Non-Manufacturing (US) (15:00)ISM Services (US) (15:00)Q2Komercni Banka GDR (Level 1), Yamana Gold Inc.SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAberforth Geared Income TrustAGMSCML Microsystems, Cropper (James), Geopark Holdings Ltd., Praesepe, Tata Steel Ltd. GDR (Reg S)TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSNextUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBRC Shop Price Index (00:01)Official Reserves (09:30)PMI Services (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATECharles Stanley Group, E2V Technologies, Fuller Smith & Turner, Homeserve, Phoenix IT Group, Record, Vedanta ResourcesFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEAberdeen New Dawn Inv Trust, Cohort, Creston, ILX Group, Latham (James), QinetiQ Group, Robert Wiseman Dairies, RPC Group, SABMillerQ1Canaccord Financial Inc.INTERNATIONAL EARNINGSActivision Blizzard, Axel Springer, Clorox, Comcast, Constellatoon Software, Dunkin Brands, Garmin, Societe Generale, Suze Environnement. Time Warner, UniCredit. Williams Companies --jh