The week ahead...

July gets underway in a blaze of company results, with the retail, housing and oil industries all hoping to get investors' pulses racing.

Kicking off events next week will be Persimmon (PSN) with a trading statement. The homebuilder is likely to report that it traded well despite a difficult backdrop of economic conditions. At the last update, the FTSE 250-listed company said its order book was flat at £1.14 billion, so investors will be keen to see whether this has improved during May/June.

While any announcement of an increase in land investment is unlikely to have affected gearing, it should offer investors confidence in the market's recovery.

Interserve (IRV) updates the market on the same day and should confirm to shareholders that trends seen in the first half trading update continued to be seen.

The company is confident in the medium term that it can double EPS over five years on an organic basis, thanks to improved trends in the outsourcing and infrastructure markets and it is likely that it will reiterate this goal.

And flying the flag for the oil majors will be Tullow Oil (TLW), which has recently come off the boil as the price of oil continues to decline from its highs. The shares reached the 1,400p mark earlier this year, but have since fallen. Given the political turmoil across its main geographical regions, the company is likely to use this statement to sooth investor concern.

Sanjeev Bahl, analyst at Numis, expects the FTSE 100 giant to narrow its 2011 production guidance from the current range of 86,000-92,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

"We expect Tullow is well placed to exceed the top end of production given strong production performance from Jubilee in the first half of 2011 and the addition of 9,000 boepd in the second half of 2012.

"On the E&A front, we expect management to provide updates on key wells which include Makore-1 in south of the WCTP licence, Ghana and Zaedyus in Guyana."

Balfour Beatty (BBY) takes to the stage midweek and should be on track to confirm recent trading in line with the trends outlined at the time of its full-year results in March. The UK construction market is holding up and this FTSE 250 company believes that revenue declines as a result of public sector cutbacks can be offset by cost savings.

3i (III) also updates the market on Wednesday following what has been a busy quarter for the company. There have been plenty of deals and investors will be hoping the update will report the company's profitability and the worth of current assets under management.

The recruitment sector gets a look in on Thursday with Hays's (HAS) trading statement. The company is up against its toughest year-on-year comparative for fiscal fourth quarter. Growth has been driven by the international operations, with UK net fees largely static for the past nine months. There is unlikely to be an improvement in the UK, with further public sector cuts likely to weigh.

High street stationers WH Smith (SMWH) is next up on Thursday and the pressure is on. Its second quarter like-for-likes were weak across both the high street and travel businesses and this deterioration in the underlying markets is likely to continue. However, Numis analyst Andrew Wade believes WH Smith will continue to demonstrate tight cost control and delivery space growth.

"On the back of the interims, we left our £92.9 million pre-tax profit forecast to August 2011 unchanged. The shares have been reasonable performers and WH Smith is a solid, cash generative business with a 5% dividend yield and we continue to see value at this level," he said.

And last but not least, Bovis Homes (BVS) wraps up a busy week on Friday with its latest trading results.

In May, the FTSE 250 company said it had enjoyed an encouraging start to the year, with the market thereafter remaining stable and visitor numbers some 20% above the prior year's levels.

Bovis said sales prices during the first few months of 2011 were stable and consistent with prices achieved in the last quarter of 2010. Investors will therefore be keen to get the group's latest outlook on prices, as well as the trends it is seeing in the market.

It's that time of the month again when the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) comes together to decide the interest rate.

Unsurprisingly enough, the MPC is set to keep rates unchanged at 0.50% when it meets on Thursday given the state of the UK economy.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said it now looks unlikely that interest rates will rise before 2012, as higher rates will act as an extra handicap that the fragile economy can well do without.

"Indeed, mounting growth concerns mean that if the Bank of England does act this year, it looks increasingly possible that it will be to relax monetary policy through reviving quantitative easing which has been on hold since February 2010."

Elsewhere, construction activity figures are due out at the start of the week and are likely to have edged back slightly in June as uncertainty continues to prevail in the sector. In particular, the government's extended slashing of public spending will clearly limit expenditure on public buildings, schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

Industrial production data is set for release on Thursday and in contrast, is likely to have rebounded strong in May after being heavily affected by the royal wedding bank holiday the previous month.

Economists at Capital Economics have pencilled in a 1.5% monthly rise in manufacturing output and a slightly bigger rise in overall production in response to a bounce in energy output and supply.

"(However), such figures would not alter the emerging picture of a fairly sharp slowdown in the industrial sector," they warn. "After all, even a similar-sized monthly rise in June too - which seems unlikely - would leave production down by around 0.2% in the second quarter overall and hence dragging on overall GDP growth."

The Halifax house price index for June is also due out next week and is likely to show that house prices were flat month-on-month.

Archer said: "We suspect that modest overall falls in house prices are more likely than not over the second half of the 2011 and the first half of 2012.

"On balance, we believe that house prices are likely to fall by around 8% overall from current levels. We anticipate that house prices will soften modestly as squeezed purchasing power, tightening fiscal policy, a soft labour market and worries over the economic outlook weigh down on potential buyers."

Monday 4 July

Results

(Finals) Cyril Sweett Group, Omega Diagnostics Group

AGM

Steppe Cement Limited

Tuesday 5 July

Results

(Final) Harvard International

(Interim) Low & Bonar, St Modwen Properties

Trading updates

Brown N Group, Interserve, Persimmon, Tullow Oil

AGM

BlackRock Hedge Selector, Brown N Group, Capital Gearing Trust, Landore Resources, Shires Income

Wednesday 6 July

Trading updates

Balfour Beatty, Booker Group, easyJet, Lupus Capital, Robert Walters

AGM

Booker Group, 3i Group, London & Stamford Property, May Gurney Integrated Services, Oxford Technology 2 Venture Capital Trust, Robert Wiseman Dairies, Ultima Networks, Westside Acquisitions

Thursday 7 July

Results

(Finals) Begbies Traynor Group, DTZ Holdings, NCC Group

(Interim) Sandvine Corporation

Trading updates

Dunelm Group, Man Group, Hays, London Capital Group Holdings, WH Smith

AGM

Aveva Group, Alexon Group, Babcock International Grou, Boussard & Gavaudan Holdings, Chaarat Gold Holdings, Man Group, Great Portland Estates, Heavitree Brewery, May Gurney Integrated Services, MCB Finance Group

Friday 8 July

Trading updates

Bovis Homes Group

AGM

Aurum Mining, JPMorgan European Smaller Companies Trust, JJB Sports, Value and Income Trust