The Week Ahead: Giant earnings: even Tesco bows before the mighty BP

After a few light results weeks and the long Easter holiday that surely left many bellies bulging, the City is set to swing back into action this week, headlined by a couple of Britain's biggies - Tesco and BP.

Tesco's chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, is, as ever, expected to unveil another year of unswerving growth for the UK's largest retailer when it publishes full-year results on Tuesday. But it will be overshadowed by BP. Just a week after the oil price broke yet another record, pushing above $74 per barrel, Williams de Broë expects the company to post $5.24bn (£3.08bn) in net income for the first three months of the year. More important than those numbers, however, will be the company's view about production for the rest of the year and to what degree its massive share buyback program, funded by the soaring oil price, is likely to continue.

Robert Tchenguiz, meanwhile, may finally pounce. The property tycoon was rumoured to be putting the finishing touches on a planned £4.6bn bid for pub group Mitchells & Butlers. His play for the company suffered a hiccup nine days ago when Goldman Sachs abruptly pulled out of the consortium he had assembled to finance the bid. He is said to have hired Deutsche Bank to advise him in the bid and to be casting about for a partner to take Goldman's place before making a formal offer.

From beer to pizza, and Pizza Hut owner Whitbread. With the long speculated-on sale of its upmarket Marriott hotel chain nearly complete - the company sold 46 hotels to Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday - analysts expect it to say little about the undying uncertainty over whether the company may break itself up or sell to private equity suitors.

"Management have been clear about their restructuring that, with the sale of Marriott, they are now done," said Simon French, an analyst at stockbrokers Numis Securities. "Management seem determined that they are now the right size and shape to move forward." The market, however, remains less convinced. Mr French expects the company to reveal full-year profit before tax of £172.9m on Wednesday.

Imperial Tobacco should deliver, cough, some smoking numbers on Wednesday. Williams de Broë expects it to report £543m in pre-tax profit, a 10 per cent jump over the same period last year. As much as analysts would like its chief executive, Gareth Davis, to give his view on a JP Morgan research note that suggested the maker of Davidoff cigarettes and Drum rolling tobacco should buy the Franco-Spanish rival Altadis, he is unlikely to say a word. That question will probably continue to smolder.

Investors in Peter Hambro Mining, which digs up gold in Russia, will be hoping that the company will have no more negative surprises. In a trading update last month, it predicted that its 2005 net profit would be 15 per cent less than the year before, due to higher extraction and fuel costs, debt service payments, and salary commitments. Yet one analyst calls those near-term numbers "almost irrelevant" next to the company's long-term goal of producing one million ounces of gold annually by 2009. Near-term bumps aside, the company continues to ride the recent record gold prices.

The outlook is less clear for pharmaceuticals companies. According to Goldman Sachs, the sector has underperformed the market by 5 per cent thus far this year. After the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's denial of Pfizer's inhaled insulin treatment last week, the niggling questions about how the sector's biggest players will keep their pipelines of new drugs filled will not go away. GlaxoSmithKline, which will unveil first-quarter sales on Thursday, is arguably the best positioned among its peers in terms of new drugs in development. Williams de Broë expects £1.8bn in profits before tax.

Smaller rival Shire unveils interims the same day, with Goldman predicting $401m, a fifth more than the year before on the back of surging sales for its hyperactivity treatment, Aderrall XR. Investors, however, continue to worry about the attempts by Barr Pharmaceuticals to make a cheap generic version of the drug. The US Food and Drug Administration said last week that it needs more time to test copycat versions, which could lead Barr to the negotiating table.

Prosthetic hipmaker Smith & Nephew reports first-quarter numbers - expected to be good but unexciting - the same day, as does Reckitt Benckiser, maker of household goods such as Lysol and Woolite. And what would be a week without the latest instalment of ongoing drama that is Multiplex's Wembley project. Steel company Cleveland Bridge UK will begin its court case against the Australian builder on Tuesday, alleging breach of contract over its apparent failure to pay its bills.

CALENDAR

Tomorrow 24

UK RESULTS: (final) Aricom, Harvey Nash, Empresaria, Hitachi Capital, Peter Hambro Mining, Sigma Technology, Sterling Energy, Vanco; (interim) Autonomy, Lok'n Store

Tuesday 25

UK RESULTS: (F) BP, Forbidden Technolgoies, Game, Premier Research, Rugby Estates, Synchronica, Tesco, Ukrproduct, Venture Production, Whitbread; (I) IDMoS, McCarthy & Stone, Mouchel Parkman, Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping, Smart (J) & Co

Wednesday 26

UK RESULTS: (F), Alexandra, Atrium Underwriting, CI Traders, European Motor, Metal-Tech,; (I) Amvescap, Carr's Milling Industries, Imperial Tobacco

Thursday 27

UK RESULTS: (F) Andrews Sykes, Clinton Cards, SMC, Body Shop International, Camellia, Fortune Oil, Instore, SMC; (I) Character, Colt Telecom, GlaxoSmithKline, Shire, Reckitt Benckiser, AstraZeneca, Smith & Nephew

Friday 28

UK RESULTS: None scheduled