Ian King Live: What's On Tonight's Show

This week has, in theory, provided a very helpful snapshot of the health of a big chunk of corporate Britain.

We have already seen half-year results from FTSE-100 stalwarts such as Hammerson (Other OTC: HMSNF - news) , BP, GKN (LSE: GKN.L - news) and Provident Financial (Other OTC: FPLPY - news) , while yesterday brought updates from Capita (LSE: CPI.L - news) , St James's Place, Arm Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) , ITV (LSE: ITV.L - news) and Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW.L - news) .

Today, meanwhile, has seen an even bigger clutch of results, with no fewer than 18 blue-chips - Diageo (LSE: DGE.L - news) , Rolls-Royce, Relx (LSE: REL.L - news) , AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN - news) , BT Group (LSE: BT-A.L - news) , Merlin Entertainments (LSE: MERL.L - news) , Schroders (LSE: SDR.L - news) , BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L - news) , Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) , Compass, British American Tobacco, Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN.L - news) , Sky (LSE: BSY.L - news) , Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: A0ET6Q - news) , Informa (Other OTC: IFJPY - news) , Lloyds Banking Group (Other OTC: LLOBF - news) , Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) and Intu Properties (Other OTC: CCRGF - news) - all updating the market.

Spare a thought for the analysts, fund managers and financial journalists all trying to make sense of such a blizzard of information being dropped on them in one go.

Of course, the FTSE-100 is not necessarily a barometer of the UK's economic health, as many of these big blue-chip businesses have comparatively few operations in the UK and much more overseas.

This is why the likes of Diageo have enjoyed big increases in their share prices since the EU referendum: the subsequent plunge in the pound means that the drinks giant's earnings, most of which are achieved in dollars and euros, have automatically seen an uplift when translated back into sterling.

Yet that translation effect can also act against a business.

Rolls-Royce, for example, reported an 80% drop in headline half year profits which primarily reflected a £2.3bn hit on a dollar hedge following the collapse in sterling against the greenback following the referendum.

One of the UK's two premier engineering firms still made a profit on an underlying basis and this hit is on a non-cash basis.

Similarly, Sky (Amsterdam: BK8.AS - news) - the parent of Sky News - saw a rise in net debt from £5.1bn to £6.2bn, due mainly to a non-cash movement of £918m that was due to sterling's plunge against the euro following the referendum.

This, as with Rolls, has no impact on the underlying trading position - which was improved.

But it is nonetheless interesting that Moody's, the ratings agency, put out a note this afternoon warning that the leverage of many UK companies, in other words, their indebtedness, would rise following the pound's sharp fall against the dollar and the euro and particularly in view of the close proximity of sterling's collapse to the end of June - which marks the end of the first half of the financial year for many UK companies.

On tonight's Ian King Live, you can see interviews with the chief executives of two of the businesses mentioned above, Warren East of Rolls-Royce and Jeremy Darroch of Sky.

And I'll also be looking at the decision expected later today in which EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) , the French state-controlled energy giant, is expected to make a final investment decision to go ahead with building a new nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C, in Somerset.

The plant is already many years behind: Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF here in Britain, once promised that customers would be cooking their Christmas dinner in 2017 with power generated by the plant. It is now unlikely to open much before the end of 2025.

The plant has been hugely controversial on both sides of the Channel.

In France, the unions are unhappy at the cost of the project, which they fear could lead to job cuts for their members at home. And that unhappiness extends to the EDF board.

Thomas Picquemal resigned as finance director in March, due to his concerns over costs, while today another director, Gerard Magnin, also quit.

He wants EDF to focus more on renewables. In Britain, meanwhile, there are also concerns about the cost of the project. EDF is being guaranteed £92.50 per megawatt hour (MwH) of energy generated by the plant for the first 35 years of its life, compared with the current cost of energy, which is just £38 MwH.

And there are also concerns that CGN, the Chinese state-backed nuclear energy group, has taken on a third of the project.

These concerns go as high as Nick Timothy, the co-chief of staff to the new Prime Minister, who has argued stridently in the recent past about Chinese investors being given quite so much access to important infrastructure.

There are also doubts over the reactor technology due to be used at Hinkley Point, which has not been used anywhere in the world, with two sites where it was planned to be deployed - in Normandy and in Finland - being way behind schedule.

Those are the arguments against the new station, but there are also some very strong arguments in favour.

EDF wants to build the new site because it wants to roll out its new reactor technology around the world.

France is now the only leading industrial power outside Japan and China that is building new nuclear power stations and so it is very keen to have a shop window in Hinkley to sell its product.

For Britain, meanwhile, Hinkley Point C would generate 7% of the UK's electricity when it comes online. That is going to be vital as existing nuclear power plants and ageing coal plants go out of service.

In an age of low-carbon energy generation, nuclear is seen as having a role to play, particular because a lot of energy generated from renewable sources is intermittent and unreliable.

Also tonight, we'll be looking at the 3,000 job cuts announced by Lloyds Banking Group, via the closure of 200 more branches.

This is a continuation of recent trends - nearly two-thirds of all banking transactions are now done by smartphone or internet - but also reflects the bank's needs to maintain profitability in the face of a likely interest rate cut from the Bank of England next week following the Brexit vote.

All that, plus the latest business and markets news from around the world, on Ian King Live at 6.30pm on Sky News. Hope you can join me.