Casinos Up Ahead of Sands Results

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After a dismal week, shares in the casino sector gathered steam ahead of Las Vegas Sands'(LVS Quote) earnings report later on Thursday.

Shares of the Sands jumped 11.5% to $14.66 in morning trading, lifting MGM Mirage(MGM Quote) 6.8% to $9.51, Wynn Resorts(WYNN Quote) 4.7% to $56.41, Boyd Gaming(BYD Quote) 5.9% to $8.10 and Isle of Capri (ISLE Quote) 3.3% to $8.11.

Analysts expect Sands to lose a penny a share on revenue of $1.17 billion. In the third quarter last year, the company earned 2 cents a share on revenue of $1.11 billion.

Investors are awaiting word of the status of Sands' pending initial public offering of its Macau assets on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Macau has been the center of much excited chatter over the last month. The region's casino industry reported that gambling revenue nearly doubled in September even as the Chinese government has incerasingly sought gambling regulation in the territory, which, like its neighbor Hong Kong, is a special administrative region of the People's Republic. Meanwhile, Sands' rival Wynn received much fanfare with its recent IPO of its Chinese assets.

Sands is also currently in the process of developing a $5.5 billion casino in Singapore, expected to open early next year.

Earlier this week, Wynn and Boyd both posted double-digit profit declines and sinking revenue in their third-quarters.

-Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

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