HSBC, the biggest British-based bank, was expected to announce bumper profits on Monday, analysts said.
"HSBC is the most profitable of all the banks quoted in the UK and I guess the expectation is that the company will make another record in terms of profit," said analyst Jeremy Batstone at broker Charles Stanley.
The bank reported a 53 percent leap in half-year pretax profit last August to 9.37 billion dollars (7.79 billion euros) - the biggest ever interim profit made by a European company.
Cigarette giant British American Tobacco was to unveil its annual results Tuesday, in between full-year earnings from publishing giant Pearson on Monday and insurance group Prudential on Wednesday.
Speculation over British interest rates, meanwhile, was fuelling profit taking in the London stock market, analysts said.
"So far the most significant impact on share prices from higher inflation and interest rate fears have been seen in the utilities sector," Morgan Stanley analyst Graham Secker said.
"Investors consider the prospect of higher interest rates as a catalyst to take profits in a sector that has outperformed the market by 12.0 percent over the last year and 57 percent over the last five years."
The Bank of England this week said that one member of its nine-strong rate-setting committee wanted the central bank to hike interest rates earlier this month, raising market expectations that an increase in borrowing costs was not far away.
Policymakers in the end decided to leave rates unchanged at 4.75 percent for the sixth month in a row.
On the economic front, markets would have to wait until next Friday for the release of unemployment data on both sides of the Atlantic.