AIB to stay ahead of the banking posse

This Week: The US corporate reporting season may be petering out but there is plenty of news from Irish listed companies this week.

AIB tops the list with Ireland's largest company publishing full-year figures tomorrow, which are expected by stockbroker Davy to be ahead of consensus expectation.

Davy says the bank's Irish and UK operations are performing extremely well with Poland also rebounding strongly - factors that lead it to predict an upgrade of forecasts after the results are announced or later in the year.

Figures from Heineken, also tomorrow, will be interesting to compare with Diageo's numbers from last week, especially in the Irish lager market where Diageo sales suffered. Pub sales figures will also interest the industry.

Wednesday sees a raft of results, led by bookmaker Paddy Power, which is confidently expected to outperform the UK sector. Others reporting on Wednesday include IIB, Trinity Biotech and Trintech.

Royal Bank of Scotland will give a further update on the Irish market on Thursday.

Monday

Results: 4Imprint, Millennium & Copthorne, Ricardo (H1), Second Alliance Trust (H1), Ultra Electronics.

A.G.M.: HHG (e.g.m.).

Meetings: Minister for Finance Mr Brian Cowen addresses the Financial Services Ireland annual members lunch (Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin); Institute of European Affairs seminar on the impact of US taxation legislation on multinational companies in Ireland and Europe.

Indicators: Italian consumer prices (Jan).

Others: President's Day market holiday in the United States; Bundesbank publishes monthly bulletin.

Tuesday

Results: AIB Group, Audi, Bradford & Bingley, Carlsberg, Deutsche Börse, Federated Department Stores (Q4), Freenet.de, Heineken, Henkel, Home Depot (Q4), Jyske Bank, Lycos Europe, Morgan Crucible, Morgan Sindall, Novell (Q1), Pirelli, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Repsol-YPF (Q4), Schwarz Pharma, SDL, Sporting Bet (H1), Thorntons (H1), George Wimpey, Wolfson.

A.G.M.: Brewin Dolphin Holdings.

Meetings: NovaUCD Venturepoint Student Enterprise Seminar Series (UCD).

Indicators: Euro-zone trade (Dec) and ECB current account (Dec); US consumer confidence (Feb); German Ifo euro-zone survey (Q1) and GDP (Q4); French consumer spending (Jan); Italian consumer confidence (Feb); Japanese all industry index (Jan) and tertiary index (Jan).

Others: Bank of Japan publishes minutes of January monetary policy committee meeting.

Wednesday

Results: Altadis, Anglo American, BBA, Brambles Industries (H1), Cadbury Schweppes, Ciena Corp (Q1), Croda International,Domnick Hunter, Egg, Grolsch, IIB Bank, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Q4), Michael Page Group, Microgen, Morse (H1), Nordea Bank (Q4), Paddy Power, PSA Peugeot, Sanctuary Group, Scottish & Newcastle, TDC (Q4), TDG, Tomkins, Trinity Biotech (Q4), Trintech (Q4), Urbium.

A.G.M.: Aberforth Small, Arrow, Unidare.

Indicators: US consumer prices (Jan), real earnings (Jan) and steel imports (Jan prelim); British CBI orders (Feb); German Ifo index (Feb); Italian business confidence (Feb) and retail sales (Dec); Japanese trade balance (Jan) and exports/imports (Jan).

Others: US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee publishes minutes of February meeting; Bank of England monetary policy committee publishes minutes of February meeting.

Thursday

Results: Alliance Unichem, Avis Europe, Axa, BAE, Cap Gemini, Capita, Centrica, Colt, Davis Service, Elementis, Fresenius, Galliford Treasury (H1), Gap (Q4), GKN, Hanson, Hilton, HVB Group, Invensys (Q3), JC Penney (Q4), Lafarge, Legal & General, McAfee (Q4), Metro Goldwyn Mayer (Q4), MFI Furniture, Nasdaq (Q4), National Express, Nestlé, NXT (H1), Rentokil Initial, Royal Bank of Scotland, RWE, Saipem, Spirent, Telecom Italia, Viacom (Q4).

Meetings: Smurfit School of Business presents a lecture on "Industrial Relations in the New Europe" by Prof Colin Crouch of Warwick Business School (UCD).

Indicators: US durable goods (Jan), new orders (Jan), help wanted (Jan) and e-commerce sales (Q4); Japanese consumer prices (Jan); Italian non-EU trade (Jan).

Others: Trading statement from C&C.

Friday

Results: Alliance & Leicester, Banco Santander Central Hispano (Q4), Belgacom, Clear Channel Communications (Q4), Four Seasons Hotels (Q4), Innogenetics, Rank, Rexam, United Business Media, Van de Velde, Washington Post (Q4), WPP.

Meetings: Cork Chamber of Commerce breakfast briefing with chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Mr Frank Daly (Imperial Hotel, Cork); Institute of European Affair hosts Mr Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the UK Treasury, on the subject of a "UK Perspective on European Economic issues".

Indicators: Euro-zone M3 data (Jan) and private sector credit (Jan); US GDP (Q4 prelim) and home sales (Jan); British GDP (Q4); German GfK index (Mar); French producer prices (Jan) and INSÉE industry survey (Jan).