Oil giant BP takes its turn in the spotlight this week as the full-year results season picks up pace, with figures also due from drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca and holiday group TUI Travel.

Falling oil industry profits will be in focus again on Tuesday when BP posts latest figures after a gloomy set of results last week from rival Royal Dutch Shell.

Shell confirmed its recent warning on earnings by revealing a 48% slide in fourth quarter profits to 2.9billion US dollars (£1.75bn), with the full-year figure down 23% at 19.5bn US dollars (£11.8bn).

The group’s new boss Ben van Beurden, who took the helm on January 1, admitted Shell needed to “sharpen up” after losing momentum in its operational delivery.

But many of the issues affecting its downstream business are sector-wide as firms suffer from low refining margins, the amount of money that is made from processing crude oil into petrol and diesel.

BP is also still grappling with the vast costs of the Gulf of Mexico disaster in 2010, which left 11 workers dead and sparked the worst oil spill in US history.

Analysts are expecting BP’s fourth quarter profits to sink 27% lower to 2.7bn US dollars (£1.6bn), with full-year results set to decline by 23% to 13.3bn US dollars (£8.1bn).

However, it surprised markets last autumn when third quarter profits fell less than feared, down 26%, which sent shares soaring and left Shell on the back foot after its figures for the same period missed expectations significantly.

BP further pleased investors by announcing a 10bn US dollar (£6.1bn) sale of assets, with plans to hand a big chunk of the proceeds to shareholders, mainly in the form of buy-backs, as well as an improved quarterly dividend.

There was also optimism over its production, which rose 3.4% on an underlying basis, reflecting major new projects in the North Sea and Angola and the absence of seasonal weather-related problems in the Gulf of Mexico.

It said it expected production to be broadly similar in the fourth quarter. But over the full year, production is likely to have been hit by its massive asset sale programme.

The group continues to battle in the US courts to halt payments on bogus claims for the Gulf of Mexico spill after an appeals court upheld the terms of BP’s original settlement despite it arguing that many false claims had been submitted. This came as a set back after a court had earlier ruled that the compensation agreement should be reviewed.

BP warned last July that its vast 20 billion US dollar (£12.1bn) trust fund set up to cover the oil spill claims was about to run out, leaving additional costs to come from profits.

Online retailer Ocado delivers annual figures on Tuesday after a bumper year following its tie-up with supermarket Morrisons and a better-than-expected Christmas performance.

Shares in the firm have surged by more than 500% over the past year on the back of its 25-year deal with Morrisons, which has seen it provide the technological know-how for the chain to make its belated debut in internet deliveries.

The service finally began on January 10 and has been hailed as a major coup for Ocado, helping it broaden out from its Waitrose contract.

It added to the cheer after posting a 20% hike in sales for the 16 weeks to December 1, with growth rising to 21% in the six weeks to January 5.

But despite the progress, annual profits are still expected to remain elusive for the firm as it counts the cost of opening distribution centres in Dordon, Warwickshire and Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

Analysts are forecasting pre-tax losses to widen to £4.2million from £600,000 a year earlier, when it moved close to the brink of its first annual surplus.

Retail experts at Goldman Sachs believe Ocado has further potential in general merchandise and international markets following its success with Waitrose and Morrisons in the UK. Ocado is already developing a new online pet store, Fetch.co.uk, as part of expansion plans.

Goldman analysts said: “We believe that Ocado has multiple opportunities beyond its core UK online grocery business. Specifically, we believe Ocado can leverage its existing infrastructure and customer base to grow a sizeable non-food business.”

Trading in China is likely to remain a key issue for drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday after allegations of bribery and corruption sent Chinese sales plunging by 61% in the third quarter.

Glaxo has been under pressure since it emerged last summer that Chinese authorities were investigating bribery by its staff - which allegedly saw as much as £324m paid through travel agencies and consultancies to doctors and health officials to boost sales and raise prices.

Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty has previously labelled the scandal “shameful” and has since been battling to repair its tarnished image.

The impact is expected to be revealed at the full-year stage after pharmaceuticals and vaccines sales in China slumped to £77m in the third quarter, with the group typically making 3% to 4% of its annual sales in the country.

It is launching a programme to overhaul its practices, halting payments for doctors to attend medical conferences and scrapping some sales targets in a bid to mend its reputation.

The changes, announced in December, began to take effect in January with the new system expected to be in place by early 2015.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank are predicting another drop of around 30% in Chinese sales over the fourth quarter, while other experts believe Glaxo’s emerging markets business may come under pressure after recent currency woes across a raft of countries.

The latest figures are also expected to be scrutinised for the performance of new drugs, particularly in the key US market, amid a raft of product launches.

Full-year pre-tax profits are seen edging lower to £6.4bn from £6.6bn on largely flat revenues, according to Deutsche Bank.

However, most City experts expect performance on an earnings per share basis to improve and sales to hold largely firm at £26.45bn after falls in the last couple of years.

Glaxo’s rival AstraZeneca reports its full-year figures on Thursday and is set to reveal an ongoing hit from a raft of drug patent losses.

Deutsche is predicting that profits will more than halve from 7.7bn dollars (£4.7bn) to 3.6bn dollars (£2.2bn) in 2013 on lower revenues.

An update on Thursday from Thomson and First Choice holidays parent TUI Travel will be looked to for signs of a possible surge in early summer bookings after January’s record rainfall.

Numis Securities analyst Wyn Ellis predicts that the dismal weather, which has seen some parts of Britain suffer the wettest January since records began in 1910, may have spurred many on to secure their fix of summer sun.

It would come as a welcome fillip for TUI, which is up against tough comparisons from a year earlier for the summer season.

The group’s latest quarter is traditionally the weakest for the group, although Numis is pencilling in a slightly smaller loss than the £116m reported a year earlier despite currency headwinds and pressure on the Egypt market.

TUI has sought to minimise the impact from travel restrictions amid the political unrest in Egypt, traditionally a popular winter destination, by cutting its service to the country, which now accounts for less than 5% of its programme.

The group posted its highest ever earnings across the business and in its UK arm for the year to September 30, with overall underlying pre-tax profits surging 21% to a higher-than-expected £473million.

UK underlying earnings rose by 27% to £251m as it benefited from the ongoing revival in package holidays.At the time of the results in early December, it said 60% of its 2013/14 winter holidays were already sold.

Mr Ellis at Numis said few surprises are expected in the quarterly update. He said: “More important, in our view, will be what the company says about bookings for the key summer months.

“A major feature of the market, certainly in the UK, has been a shift to online and mobile and we believe that the poor weather in the UK over the last several weeks may have helped to stimulate early summer booking.”