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BT and NatWest results in focus on Friday

July 31, 2020

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The week of banking interims closes with NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) in the usual Friday spot it reserved under its former RBS moniker.

Under its former name it took impairments of £802mln for potential credit losses from the coronavirus crisis.

If rivals Lloyds and Barclays are anything to go by, the lender is likely to be increasing these bad loan provisions.

BT's Openreach and Huawei changes in focus

Telecoms giant BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) will close out the week with a trading update, around two weeks after the firm denied that it is planning to offload a multibillion-pound stake in its Openreach infrastructure arm.

However, one issue investors may be looking for more detail on is the removal of equipment made by Chinese tech firm Huawei, with earlier this month was banned by the UK government from the countrys 5G mobile internet networks.

While the UKs telecom groups have been given longer than they expected, seven years, to rip out Huaweis technology, cost is likely to be at the forefront of investors minds.

Analysts at UBS have previously calculated that there is a risk that a reduction to zero Huawei equipment would double BT's capital expenditure on its 5G rollout.

Aside from the mobile network, investors will be keen to see if the companys TV arm has seen any uptick from the restart of Premier League matches in June.