Christmas glutons are desperately trying to shed those pounds, and I don't mean the financial ones.

While the shops may be quiet, gym memberships are soaring, as the diet fads lose favour. It is difficult to fully assess the state of the fitness centre market, as practically all are in private hands. The last major health and fitness operator with a listing, LA Fitness, has confirmed that it has received a number of approaches, which could lead to its withdrawal from the market.

The post-Christmas stock market continues to be dominated by profit warnings from retailers big and small, with little in the way of scheduled results announcements to pepper the gloom. On the bright side, at least we are running out of retailers left to report, and to disappoint.

One company expected to buck the trend is supermarket Tesco, which today provides an update on how trading has been over the festive season. All retailers were warned that any bad news should be reported early, and Marks & Spencer did, but Tesco is confident enough to keep to its scheduled date.

Supermarkets win handsomely over Christmas, as food and particularly drink sell very well. Higher profits are usually achieved at the expense of rivals. Extracting petrol sales from the figures would seem to imply that Tesco will have gained from the migration of shoppers from Sainsbury's, the Safeway stores still operating under that name, and also taken some of the patronage from Marks & Spencer.

Almost last in the queue to report is HMV, the owner of 200 record, music and video game stores around the country. Half-year numbers and a Christmas trading statement are due to be announced today. In the first 21 weeks of the year, underlying sales grew by 2.1 per cent and the company recently announced plans for a partnership with Microsoft for digital downloading. More news on that may counteract the effect of weakness in the Christmas video games market. Despite the threat of pirate music downloads, HMV often does better than expected. Sales include vouchers bought for the awkward nephew or brother-in-law, irrespective of what they eventually use them to buy.

Bringing up the rear, tomorrow sees an update from Boots. This is a difficult one to predict, despite the company being tipped pre-Christmas by many as a stock that might disappoint. In a generally rising market, Boots' shares have been trading sideways, mainly supported by the above-average dividend.

It was no surprise last week, when interest rates were left unchanged at 4.75 per cent. It has now been five months since the escalation of rates stopped. With concern about jitters in the UK economy, it is now rare to find an economic forecaster predicting any further rate increases. The consensus has swung in the past few months, and expectations are now pointing to unchanged rates throughout 2005. Many though are also predicting a small cut in rates to 4.5 per cent as inflation remains well below target.

This news will come as a relief to the fragile personal property market, which has recently shown signs of crashing. While stagnant interest rates are not ideal for the bond market, continued low rates are perfect conditions for the equity market.

* For investment advice contact Anthony Platts on 01642 608855.

Published: 18/01/2005