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Date: Wednesday 20 Aug 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Persimmon was the last of the housebuilders to fall out of the FTSE 100, since when the share price has recovered in line with its peers, as fears receded that the banks would pull the plug on some of the more hard pressed companies in the sector.

Persimmon declares its interim results on Thursday, a week after fellow housebuilder Bellway announced a 14% dip in home sales and a 45% dive in reservations.

Persimmon’s performance against those benchmarks will be closely watched, but of more importance will be the management’s view on the possibility of write-downs in land values. Last month the company said it did not expect to announce write-downs in the first half, while industry observers expect the company to write down land values by between £200m and £300m by the time the property market fall-out has completed.

Ferrochrome producer Eurasian Natural Resources said earlier this month that second quarter production volumes across the group were higher than a year ago, which bodes well for their interim results.

The company has previously contemplated bidding for fellow Kazakhstan mining heavyweight Kazakhmys, but that looks off the agenda since Kazakhmys built up its stake in ENRC above 25%.

Cinema chain Cineworld has been trading in line with expectations in the first half of the year. The success of blockbusters such as “I Am Legend” and the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones saga is expected to have lifted box office revenues by about 1.2% in the first half, while analysts expect total revenues to improve by about 0.7%.

The company has warned that it faces much tougher year-on-year comparables in the third quarter, but that was before Batman came to the rescue, breaking industry box office records.

Cinema attendances normally hold up well in times of recession; it is still a cheap form of entertainment, provided you steer clear of the overpriced food treats.

Latin America-focused Hochschild Mining has seen its shares slide from 400p at the start of July to around 257p currently, despite a bullish trading update in July in which the company said it is on course to achieve its silver and gold production targets for 2008.

Swiss bank UBS thinks the fall is overdone and recently upgraded the miner from “neutral” to “buy”, though it cut its price target from 410p to 400p.

Expectations are for half-year revenues to be just shy of $200m, up 65% as new mines start producing.

The company has been building up a stake in Lakeshore Gold in Canada and has also indicated it is on the look-out for acquisitions..

Thursday August 21

INTERIMS
Aberdeen Growth Opps, Amlin, Cineworld Group, Eurasian Natural Resources, Hochschild Mining, Huntsworth, Hydrogen Group, John Menzies, Persimmon, ProStrakan, PV Crystalox Solar, SIG

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Aberforth Geared Cap & Inc Tst Plc, Aberforth Smaller Companies Tst

FINALS
Monitise

AGMS
Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Coms, Intellego Holdings, Latham (James), Rotala

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Retail Sales (09:30)

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