The Week Ahead: Multiplex says Wembley won't be kicked into the long grass

For the past two months, the City has been frantic. A steady stream of results and deals, sitting beside profits warnings and growing concerns about the state of economy, have conspired to leave the Square Mile buzzing with activity.

For the past two months, the City has been frantic. A steady stream of results and deals, sitting beside profits warnings and growing concerns about the state of economy, have conspired to leave the Square Mile buzzing with activity.

Yet an old saying in the City advises investors to "sell in May and go away - buy again on St Leger's day" (ie, in September). It refers to the tendency of stocks to languish during the summer months as investors flee the City and the newsflow eases off, and such is the situation this week. Not helped by the short week - markets on both sides of the Atlantic are shut tomorrow, in the US for Memorial Day - major announcements from blue chips are thin on the ground as June gets under way.

However, the City never shuts down entirely, bank holidays or no, so there will still be much to occupy traders on their return to their desks on Tuesday.

In a truly global style, one of the bigger announcements involves arguably the UK's best-known sporting landmark and an Australian construction giant. Multiplex, the company building the new Wembley stadium, will tomorrow reveal the true extent of losses on the west London project.

The board of the property and construction company held an emergency meeting over the weekend after the shock departure of its executive chairman, John Roberts, who quit after Multiplex revealed that losses on the Wembley project had exceeded A$50m (£20.9m). The company will now disclose the full details of the losses, but will also insist that the stadium will be ready for next year's FA Cup Final.

Other overseas companies updating investors include champagne house Laurent-Perrier, the London Stock Exchange's one-time suitor Euronext - owner of Liffe as well as the Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris stock exchanges - and Ryanair.

The focus at the Irish carrier's full-year results is likely to be fuel, particularly as it does not hedge against price fluctuations. However, the no-frills airline has in its favour what Williams de Broë analyst Stephen Clapham calls "industry-beating margins". He adds: "The key thing to look for in these figures is what is happening to yields. We suspect that there will be some benefit here, but not enough to overcome the fuel price." Mr Clapham is predicting a slight uplift in profits, from €234m (£161m) to €267m.

Closer to home, and this week's retail story will be the discount chain Peacock. Final pre-tax profits are likely to nudge up 3 per cent to £37.5m but it will be any comment on current trading that will grab investor attention as fears of a slowdown continue to grip the sector.

Elsewhere, and it's all about stomachs, with results from Northern Foods and Tate & Lyle. Analysts are hoping for few surprises at the former following the profit warning in January when it was confirmed that pre-tax profits would be in the region of £80m.

There are, however, still a number of areas investors will want to hear about. These include how the restructuring plans, under chief executive Pat O'Driscoll are going and whether financial targets will be met. The company, which supplies both convenience and fresh foods, operates in a competitive market. At the same time, its leading customer, Marks & Spencer, is experiencing tough trading conditions.

Other announcements worth keeping an eye out for include results from AWG, owner of Anglian Water, United Utilities, online bookies Sportingbet and troubled oil minnow Regal Petroleum. British Airways posts May traffic figures, while insurer Prudential updates on the impact of the new IFRS accounting standards.

A smattering of key economic announcements and some legal news are also expected. The European Court of Justice will make a landmark ruling that could save the European pharmaceutical industry at least €2bn (£1.1bn) each year. The court will make a final ruling on so-called "parallel trading", where drugs sold at lower prices in mainly Southern and Eastern European countries are resold at higher prices in Western Europe.

GlaxoSmithKline, complaining of being ripped off by Greek wholesalers in this way, has restricted the sale of some of its drugs to the country. In this test case - eagerly watched by the rest of the industry - Glaxo will find out whether its actions contravene anti-monopoly rules or whether the rest of the industry can tackle parallel trading in the same way.

As for the economic news, there are updates on consumer confidence and manufacturing, the CBI Distributive Trades Survey and the Nationwide's house price index. Overseas, the European Central Bank is expected to leave interest rates at 2 per cent, completing two years of unchanged policy.

In other words, the summer lull is not here just yet.

CALENDAR

Tomorrow 30

UK: Results: Markets closed.

Tuesday 31

UK: Results: (final) Domestic & General Group, Hamworthy KSE, Peacock Group, Regal Petroleum.

Wednesday 1

UK: Results: (F) GB Group, Northern Foods, Printing.com, Speedy Hire, Umeco; (interim) API Group.

Thursday 2

UK: Results: (F) AWG, Expro International Group, Helical Bar, Johnson Matthey, Prologic, Scapa Group, Shanks Group, Tate & Lyle, United Utilities, Vendanta Resources; (first quarter) Premier Farnell; (third quarter) Sportingbet.

Friday 3

UK: Results: (F) Hornby, Oxford Instruments, Park Group.