Investors will eye the release this week of third-quarter results for Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus as it faces rival take-over bids from Brazil's CSN and India's Tata Steel.
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's chairman Benjamin Steinbruch told Friday's Financial Times that CSN will make a bid for Corus before its shareholders meet on December 4 to consider an offer from Tata Steel of India.
CSN announced an informal offer a week ago. Its offer of 475 pence per share for Corus topped Tata's bid of 455 pence, and valued the Anglo-Dutch firm at 5.3 billion pounds (7.8 billion euros, 10.2 billion dollars), including debt.
Tata Steel on Friday denied media reports which had said it would raise its offer.
Corus is set to publish its results Wednesdsay. On the same day, the number one catering company, Compass, and the software group Sage are to reveal their annual results.
On Tuesday, Barclays bank is to publish its trading statement for the third quarter, while the sector suffers from bad debt and an increase in personal bankruptcies, according to the investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Mark Phin, an analyst at the bank, said all the factors behind current problems such as household debt and fiscal presssures were not likely to dissipate in the short term. On Thursday, Kingfisher, the biggest European home-improvements retailer, presents its results for the 13 weeks ending on October 31. Analysts forcecast like-for-like sales will range from a dip of one percent to an increase of 2.5 percent. Weak results from B and Q stores in Britain are likely to weigh again on profits, however, according to analysts at UBS and J. P Morgan.
The FTSE 100 index of blue chip stocks closed Friday at 6,122.10 points, down by 1.13 percent from the previous week.
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