Investors will be hoping for good news amid another wave of blue-chip results next week with updates from the recruitment, retail and engineering sectors likely to prove the main interest in the City.

Outsourcing and distribution group Hays will provide a timely update on the recruitment market, on Monday. The group's personnel division is split half and half between temporary and permanent staff and any signs of weakness away from the troubled information technology market will cause concern.

The weakening economy was blamed in a profit warning three months ago for a downturn in Hays' logistics division, a setback that caused a share slide and led to the departure of managing director John Cole.

Interim profits are expected to come in at just £272m, up from £262.6m last time.

Engineering group IMI warned two months ago its interim operating profits would be ten per cent below last year's levels. The focus of most attention on Monday will therefore be IMI's restructuring plans and its outlook, particularly in its largest business which has seen a downturn in the European building industry.

The star performer is expected to be IMI's smallest energy controls division which should see strong growth in the second half. Half-year pre-tax profits are set to fall to £64m.

The strength of the high street is likely to be reflected in a strong set of interim figures from fashion chain Next, on Tuesday. Next was recording like-for-like growth of nine per cent earlier this year and its catalogue business, Next Directory, should also report good growth.

City stockbroker Gerrard predicts a 12 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £91m, with the main concern being Next's views for the second half, given the economic outlook.

Former Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett is in for a bumpy ride when he presents Woolworths' first results since its demerger from Kingfisher, on Tuesday. Poor sales and the impact of a stock surplus are expected to leave Woolworths with an operating loss for the first half of the year.

Analysts believe there is also a risk of asset write-downs while costs are likely to be higher due to interest payments and e-commerce costs. Mr Corbett's future plans for the business will be the other key focus point.

l Companies reporting next week include:

MONDAY - Finals: Galliford Try, Gullane Entertainment, Hays, Hercules Property, Interior Services,Services, Minerva. Interims: Bovis Homes, Brake Brothers, British Polythene Industries, Candover Investments, Corus Group, Ennstone, Fairey Group, Forth Ports, Future Network, Fyffes, Host Europe, IMI, Knowledge Support, Litho Supplies, PSD Group, Spectris, Taylor Nelson Sofres, Television Corporation.

TUESDAY - Finals: Paterson Zochonis, Redrow, Surfcontrol (Q4), Transeda, Ultimate Leisure Group. Interims: Afa Systems, Amey, Arena Leisure, Axon Group, BBA Group, Boosey & Hawkes, Capital & Regional, Conister Trust, Dynamic Commercial Finance, Friends Provident, Johnson Service Group, Kerry Group, Morgan Crucible, Myratech.net, Next, Peterhouse, Roxboro Group, SMG, TT Electronics, Wyevale Garden Centres, XTL Biopharmaceuticals.

WEDNESDAY - Finals: Mucklow (A&J) Group, Regent Inns. Interims: Aegis, Alkane Energy, Bede, Celltech, Densitron Technologies, International Greetings, Interserve, National Express Group, Robotic Tech System, Waterford Wedgwood.

THURSDAY - Finals: Canary Wharf, Kier Group, Pic International Group. Interims: BAE Systems, JKX Oil & Gas, Lattice Group, Overnet Data, Stream Group.

FRIDAY - Finals: Transware. Interims: ITnet, RTL Group