JD Wetherspoon, which issues a fourth quarter trading statement this week, is thought to have benefited from the introduction of TV screens into 540 of its pubs during the World Cup. Investors will be looking to see how summer trading has been affected by the smoking ban in Scotland. Management has already banned smoking in 38 English pubs. Like-for-like sales could be down 2% to 3%, but with conditions slowly improving analysts are looking for a full-year decline of only 0.5%. The Mail on Sunday (Financial Mail) 16/07/06 page 5 The Independent on Sunday 16/07/06 (Business) page 11