BUSY few days for corporate results will see first-quarter updates from BP and Royal Dutch Shell and full-year figures from Whitbread.

Hotels and restaurant group Whitbread’s annual results tomorrow are likely to show modest growth in profits despite an increasingly difficult year. The group is expected to post underlying pre-tax profits of about £221.4m for the year to February 28 – compared with £210.3m the previous year.

Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell will be back in the spotlight with first-quarter profits from the pair likely to be severely dented by sharply falling oil prices.

A year ago, they reported Q1 results on the same day and fuelled motorists’ anger over rising petrol prices by reporting a combined surplus of more than £7bn.

According to a consensus of broker forecasts, BP is expected to post underlying profits of $2.23bn (£1.53bn) tomorrow – about two-thirds lower than last year’s $6.23bn (£4.29 bn).

Anglo-Dutch rival Shell, which reports on Wednesday, is also likely to see underlying Q1 profits below the $7.85bn (£5.39bn) seen last year, at $2.6bn (£1.8bn).

Analysts will be scouring quarterly figures from satellite broadcaster BSkyB on Wednesday for any signs of slowing growth in customer numbers. Also of interest will be the early response to its initiative to slash the cost of the take-up of its Sky Plus HD service, which combines a personal video recorder with high definition TV. Analysts expect pre-tax profits to be down from £192m to about £180m.

The owner of the Homebase and Argos is expected to post sharply reduced underlying pre-tax profits when it reports final results on Wednesday.

Analysts predict Home Retail will reveal profits have slumped by about a quarter to £320m, from £433m last year.

Strong results from Amazon UK and video games firm Game Group have set high expectations for retailer HMV’s trading update on Wednesday.

But the retailers may have provided HMV with some stiff competition, with Amazon in particular revealing fierce pricing tactics on music.

HMV, which also owns the Waterstone’s book chain, said earlier this year that the music division had enjoyed its best Christmas. Its Waterstone’s business did not enjoy the same performance, suffering declining sales. But figures from Game gave an encouraging outlook for the games market.

Pest control and cleaning firm Rentokil Initial will provide an update on Friday. The firm, which operates its City Link parcels business as well as its washrooms and pest control divisions, warned of tough trading at the beginning of its financial year. Analysts expect the firm to post firstquarter pre-tax profits of £17m, compared with £19.4m in the same period last year.