Companies reporting next week

HOT topics ranging from the cost of borrowing to ITV Digital's demise and easyJet's expansion should feature in the City next week. On top of that, results from a clutch of high-profile companies will add spice.

The implications of ITV Digital's demise should dominate proceedings during BskyB's third-quarter results announcement on Friday.

In the short term, BSkyB will lose programme revenue from ITV Digital, but it should also pick up subscribers as a result of the collapse.

Fund manager Gerrard expects BSkyB's direct-to-home subscriber base to have risen 11% on an annual basis to nearly 5.9m, with pre-tax losses declining to £235m from £256m last time.

Low-cost airline easyJet surprised the market on Friday by announcing it was in the advanced stages of talks to take over rival operator Go. That proposed deal will be the centre of attention when easyJet posts half-year figures on Wednesday. These are expected to show underlying pre-tax profits of around £1m against losses of more than £10m last time.

Strong sales in the US and Europe should boost first-quarter figures at the world's leading household cleaning products group, Reckitt Benckiser on Tuesday. Fund manager Gerrard expects pre-tax profits to rise from last year's £82m to £96m this time, despite economic woes in Latin America and tough conditions in Asia are likely to have an impact on the performance.

Gas exploration group BG Group should outshine counterparts in the energy sector with only a slight fall in first quarter earnings on Thursday. The expected net income figure of £133m - down from £136m a year earlier - compares with 50%-plus reductions seen elsewhere.

With premiums on the increase after the September 11 attacks, Royal & SunAlliance will be under pressure to show it has benefited from this trend when it issues first-quarter results on Thursday. These are expected to improve from £143m to £175m.

Economic attention will be firmly placed on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, which is due to announce the results of its monthly interest rate setting meeting on Thursday.

While there has been a batch of upbeat survey material, recent speeches from key figures suggest there is little prospect of an early hike in base rates.