The City can expect a rollercoaster few days next week as some of the biggest names on the FTSE-100 Index report results.

Banks, pharmaceutical and media companies dominate the week, and there should also be crucial updates on the state of the beleaguered tech sector.

Abbey National's interim results announcement on Wed-nesday will focus on the mortgage bank's future following Lloyds TSB's failed takeover attempt. There has been much speculation about Abbey acquiring Alliance & Leicester, although Jim Wood-Smith, of Gerrard's stockbrokers, said this would be a retrograde step.

He said: ''Abbey has proved the case for organic growth over the past decade, outstripping its smaller mortgage bank rivals in developing earnings.''

Expect that strong performance to continue, with full-year pre-tax profits on course to break through the £2bn barrier and a four per cent rise in the interim figure forecast, to £956m, he said.

Lloyds TSB's strategy following the Abbey disappointment will come under the spotlight on Friday with its interim results. The bank faces intense competition in all its markets, but Lloyds is considered a well-managed operation and is likely to post a ten per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £2.28bn.

BT is likely to provide plenty of headlines on Thursday when it reports its first-quarter results. The telecoms giant has undergone a significant change with a rights issue, disposals and a management change, so most investor interest will be on clues to the valuation of the business. Gerrard's forecasts BT's pre-tax profits will be static at £1.6bn, reflecting the impact of acquisitions and higher interest costs.

Chip designer Arm Holdings is expected to show on Monday that second-quarter profits, at £11m, have failed to match the £11.4m reported in the previous three months.

The decline will be blamed on a fall in royalty income, which is always one quarter in arrears, although revenues are likely to have stood up to the current slowdown in the hardware market. Further weakness is expected in second quarter royalties, leaving Arm with a mixed outlook going forward.

Newly-merged pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline should be fuelled by strong sales on the respiratory side of the business when it goes to the City with its second-quarter figures on Tuesday.

With the recent merger helping to deliver improved margins, Glaxo should post pre-tax profits of £1.7bn, compared with £1.48bn a year earlier.

l Companies reporting next week:

MONDAY - Finals: IG Group, Mitie Group. Interims: Arm Holdings, Provident Financial, Shire Pharmaceuticals.

TUESDAY - Finals: Epic. Interims: Egg, GlaxoSmithKline, Partus Technologies, Power Leisure, Reuters, Toad.

WEDNESDAY - Finals: BSkyB, SFI Group. Interims: Abbey National, Cadbury Schweppes, Domino's Pizza, Legal & General, St James Place Capital

THURSDAY - Finals: Autonomy, Eurodis Electron, Spring Group. Interims: Aggregate Industries, AstraZeneca, BG Group, Cookson Group, Datamonitor, ICI, MFI Furniture Group, Prudential, Telemetrix

FRIDAY - Interims: Lloyds TSB, Trinity Mirror