The recent flood of corporate results will slow this week, with Balfour Beatty and Inter- Continental Hotels among companies due to report.

Balfour Beatty has seen strong trading in the first half of the year, although its performance has been overshadowed by the turmoil surrounding London Underground infrastructure firm Metronet, in which the group has a 20 per cent stake.

Metronet fell into administration last month after failing in its claim for £1bn in extra work on the network, causing Balfour Beatty to write off its £100m investment in the consortium.

City watchers are expecting the company to report underlying interim profits of about £71m on Wednesday, compared with £56m last year.

Electrical firm T Clarke will post interim results on Friday, buoyed by fresh wins in its core London market. The Wands-worth-based company, which boasted orders of £200m in May, has picked up contracts on investment bank Bear Stearns' Canary Wharf building, as well as work on a deal to upgrade the Docklands Light Railway.

But analysts at Arbuthnot are expecting a slight fall in half-year profits as the company comes to terms with volatile short-term costs.

The broker predicts pre-tax profits five per cent lower at £3.8m, although it is more upbeat about long-term prospects.

Investors will hope that British Energy, which runs Hartlepool nuclear power station, has finally left its production difficulties behind when the power company reports first quarter profits on Thursday.

It has been a turbulent year for the company, which has seen its share price fall by about 30 per cent following problems at nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Ayrshire-based Hunterston.

Media and advertising company WPP is widely expected to demonstrate its resilience to the challenging TV and print advertising markets in Europe and the US when it reports its interim figures on Friday.

At its annual meeting, in June, the group said revenues, profits and margins had continued to grow in the first five months of the year, although it was expecting to take a big hit from the weakened dollar.

Analysts' consensus forecasts expect pre-tax profits to rise to £325m, up from £316m in the six months to June 30, on broadly flat turnover of £2.9bn - because of the currency impact.

InterContinental Hotels Group is widely expected to show strong growth in its pipeline of new rooms - in line with its target to add between 50,000 and 60,000 rooms by the end of next year.

Consensus forecasts put continuing operating profits in the range £110m to £119m for the six months to the end of June, up from £107m last year.