Retail continues to set the tone of the UK stock market on Thursday with a deluge of trading updates taking the temperature of shoppers over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Reports flood in from high street heavyweights Marks & Spencer (MKS), Tesco (TSCO), Debenhams (DEB), plus some of the bigger UK-based online merchants, such as ASOS (ASC) and AO World (AO.).
Marks & Spencer soundly beats forecasts for Christmas trading as it reports its first quarterly rise in underlying clothing and homeware sales in nearly two years, delivering a boost to new boss Steve Rowe. That sparks the share price to rally close on 3% to 350p, heading the Footsie leader board early in Thursday trading.
Britain's biggest retailer Tesco caps a year of recovery as it reports a 0.7% rise in underlying Christmas sales in its home market. That's a very solid performance over the key festive period although off the pace set by the upbeat tones of rivals Morrisons (MRW) (read here) and Sainsbury (SBRY) (read here) over the past couple of days. Tesco shares drift 2% lower to 204.55p.
The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index fails to respond to the largely upbeat retail landscape in early deals, nudging around 17 points lower, or 0.25%, to 7,272 having closed on Wednesday at 7290.49, yet another record high. Yesterday was the index's 12th consecutive session on the rise, its longest winning streak in the index's 33-year history, according to Reuters data.
Elsewhere, British online fashion retailer ASOS continues the positive shopping tone and plans to accelerate the pace of its infrastructure investment as it expects sales to rise by nearly a third this year following bumper demand over the Christmas period. It's stock nudges 1.3% higher at £54.59.
Debenhams, Britain's number two department store chain, posts a 5% rise in like-for-like sales in the seven-week Christmas period pinging the stock 4.6% up to 56.85p. Investors are buoyed by plans to sell more beauty and gift products rather than clothing, one of the most competitive ends of the shopping landscape.
Foods group Associated British Foods (ABF) says total sales at discount fashion store Primark climbed 11% in the 16-week Christmas period as it stuck to a forecast to make progress in group annual operating profit. But largely flat like-for-like sales thanks to slower growth in Germany and the Netherlands concerns investors and drags the share price 2% lower at £26.40.
Among other UK corporates, Britain's biggest housebuilder by volume Barratt Developments (BDEV) posts a year-on-year drop in the number of homes built in the six months to 31 December, as it completed fewer properties in London. That's not as upbeat as peer Persimmon (PSN) (read here) recently but beats the Christmas profit warning by Bovis (BVS) (read here). Barratt shares nudge 1% lower at 495.3p.
British staffing company Hays (HAS) reports higher quarterly net fees on Thursday helped by growth in continental Europe and Asia Pacific. That helps the shares rise modestly, up 1% to 160.5p, although there will be some concern over the group also noting that conditions remain tough in Britain, echoing yesterday's comments by peer PageGroup (PAGE) (read here).
North Sea-focused oil producer Premier Oil (PMO) says full-year revenue slipped 10% year-on-year in preliminary results, despite production levels hitting an improved target. But stabilised oil prices offset some of the potential disappointment and allows the stock to rally 2.7% to 94p on Thursday.
Back in the retail space, British homewares retailer Dunelm (DNLM) announces like-for-like sales for the second quarter improved 0.2% on improved sales of seasonal items and higher online sales. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this largely flat performance gets similar treatment from investors, the stock also by-and-large flat at 791p.
Online electrical retailer AO World's UK business saw growth slow in its UK business with ao.com revenue up 10.3% year-on-year and overall UK revenue up 8.9%. This is versus tough comparatives but the group gets little leeway from investors, the stock heftily sold off, down 6.5% at 172.2p.
Baby goods retailer Mothercare (MTC) unveils the return of sales growth in its third-quarter in the UK, helped by a rise in online orders. The shares stay wedged in at 113.5p.
