Wednesday preview: Berkeley Group and ProCook results due

(Sharecast News) - On Wednesday, housebuilder Berkeley Group and kitchenware retailer ProCook will release full-year results. AJ Bell analysts Russ Mould and Danni Hewson noted that historically, and particularly under late founder Tony Pidgley, Berkeley acquired a well-earned reputation for calling the ups and downs of the housing market pretty successfully.

"That is why the housebuilder's downbeat update in April caused such major ripples," they said. "The company turning away from new land purchases gave a very clear signal about how it saw the outlook, and that signal couldn't have been much gloomier if it had been Eeyore waving a torn plastic flag with his tail.

"Longer-term targets have already been watered down substantially but the company did stick with its guidance for the year just gone, so attention when it comes to the full-year results is likely to be centred on the immediate outlook.

"The hope will be that recent developments in the Middle East are beginning to feed through into slightly improved buyer sentiment, although that is unlikely to prompt any major shift in approach on Berkeley's part."

Across the pond, quarterly results from semiconductor company Micron and Paychex will be out.

On the macroeconomic front, the German Ifo index for June will be released at 0900 BST, while US new home sales figures for May will be published at 1500 BST.