Press Association

CW, DSG and M&B due to report

Carphone Warehouse's half-year results on Friday come after the group recently pleased the market by topping forecasts for broadband customer additions and confirming its planned demerger was "progressing at pace".

The group, which is spinning off its TalkTalk business into a separate company, said it gained a net 77,000 subscribers in the three months to September 30, compared with City predictions for an increase of around 41,000.

Analysts will look for any further update on its plans with the Best Buy chain and the sudden departure of Bob Willett, Best Buy's international chief executive. Mr Willett will leave on New Year's Eve, just months before the firm makes its hotly-anticipated debut in the UK.

Signs of a more robust consumer electricals market could provide a flicker of light when the owner of computer chain PC World reports its half-year figures on Thursday.

DSG International - which also owns Currys - reported sliding UK same-store sales in the first quarter as the group came up against strong comparisons with the previous year when TV prices were slashed.

The results are also likely to come up against less taxing comparisons as the consumer downturn began to set in last year. DSG said PC World's like-for-like sales tumbled 15% in the 16 weeks to August 22 with "significantly lower" sales to business customers but a stronger international performance across the group helped limit like-for-like sales declines to 6%.

Forecasts put pre-tax profits at between £40 million and £60 million for the current financial year.

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers was able to provide some cheer after a tough year when a final quarter rebound in sale saw it up guidance for annual profits. But the late sales push is not expected to have prevented a steep slide in profits for the year to September 26.

Battered by the consumer spending slump and property price slides amid the recession, Mitchells - which owns and operates 2,000 pubs - saw pre-tax profits plunge 48% in the first half.

While analysts at Deutsche Bank are forecasting profits to be down more than 24% to £127.9 million when they report on Thursday, they said Mitchells had been performing on a par with the likes of robust rival Whitbread - owner of Brewers Fayre - in the fourth quarter and predicted further improvements to come.