ENTERTAINMENT retailer HMV will be looking to releases from big names such as Oasis and Coldplay to boost flagging sales.

The high street chain will post full-year results today and analysts are predicting pre-tax profits will reach £130m, up by about ten per cent on last year.

But investors will be focusing on current trading, after the plc reported a 2.2 per cent decline in sales during the past quarter.

A decline in DVD sales is expected to be offset by the release of new albums from Oasis and Coldplay.

The retailer, which owns the Waterstones chain, is also banking on the imminent arrival of the latest instalment in the Harry Potter series of books.

Anthony Platts, of Middlesbrough stockbroker Wise Speke, said: "The CD and DVD market on the whole is in decline.

"But if there are good albums coming out, they will always do all right."