HIGH-PROFILE companies including BT and British Airways will report figures next week as the annual results season kicks off in earnest.

The market is expecting BA to announce a hike in pre-tax profits this Friday, from é513m last year to é580m, despite rising fuel costs.

Last month BA increased its fuel surcharge on long-haul flights for the sixth time since it first introduced the charge in May 2004.

A trading update on BA's low-cost air fares in Europe is expected and cost-cutting measures introduced by new chief executive Willie Walsh are likely to come under scrutiny. Mr Walsh has already outlined plans to cut overheads by é450m by axing 600 management jobs and many more in call centres and travel shops.

Supermarket Sainbury's will take another step in its recovery on Wednesday as the chain reports full-year results following five quarters of sales growth in a row.

The firm has been buoyed by the success of its Try Something New campaign, which saw like-for-like sales exceed all market expectation by rising 5.3 per cent. The consensus forecast in the City shows that the company will report pre-tax profits of é358m.

Analysts, though, will be keen to see how profit margins have fared as Sainsbury's goes head-to-head with Asda in the battle for second place in the sector.

Ingrid Boon, analyst at Investec Securities, said: "The shares have performed strongly and we expect this to continue as the market acknowledges the success of the recovery."

Boots, which recently sold its Strepsils healthcare business (BHI) for é1.9bn, unveils full-year results and is expected to post a drop in pre-tax profits on Thursday from é452m to é400.6m for the last financial year, partly owning to the absence of two months trading from BHI and the cost of the company's turnaround strategy.

Investors will see if Boots' decision to carry out its largest ever programme of price cuts, involving reductions on about 1,000 products in health, beauty and food departments has paid off.

The Nottingham-based company, which operates from 1,400 outlets in the UK, has faced a fierce battle with supermarkets in the health and pharmacy sector.

The tough marketplace proved instrumental in prompting Boots' decision to forge a summer merger with wholesale firm and pharmacies owner Alliance UniChem. The firms received regulatory clearance last week for the é7bn tie-up, which is due to complete in July.

With increased competition in the broadband market from the Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB, BT's market share position will be under close examination when it posts full-year results on Thursday.

BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, has emphasised BT's strength across a range of "new wave" services, including IT networks as well as broadband. The company also surprised the market recently by acquiring retailer dabs.com, in a move which will allow it to harness its own services, including broadband, to physical sales of hardware such as laptops and PCs.

BT turnover is likely to show a rise to é5.09 billion for the year to March 31, compared with é4.87 billion a year earlier. Underlying profits will show a slight fall to é540 million from é560 million.

The camera firm Jessops is likely to have utilised its strength as a specialist retailer to show healthy half-year results on Wednesday with sales of high-performance SLR cameras up 52 per cent and sales growth for digital cameras up 15 per cent. Pre-tax profits are expected to be up 26 per cent on last year at é4.2m.

Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels posts first quarter results on Tuesday that will show strong demand in the United States as key to a é29m rise in operating profits to é33m.

The company has also promised to pay a special dividend in the second quarter of this year after receiving the proceeds from asset sales, including its stake in drinks maker Britvic. Tweet