Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola’s (KO:NYSE) first quarter results (25 Apr) topped Wall Street expectations as consumers gulped down more of its namesake brand as well as Powerade and Costa Coffee as the world continued to reopen. But the beat was also driven by higher prices, with Coca-Cola’s sales performance including 7% growth in price and product mix. Coca-Cola is well known for its ...

Shares in Associated British Foods (ABF) fell 5.1% to a five-year low of £15.47 after the FTSE 100 company warned its Primark discount fashion chain will need to raise prices in order to offset rampant cost inflation. The foods-to-fashion conglomerate also guided towards a greater than expected drop in Primark’s second half operating margin to reflect ‘further inflationary pressures’ and ...

Stock markets are forward looking which means investors think mainly about a company’s prospects when they decide how much they are prepared to pay for its shares, or at what price they want to sell. Potential bad news tends to be priced into a company’s valuation before the event happens. Expectations are lowered and when the company eventually updates on matters, you often see the market ...

Already contending with red hot inflation, consumer-facing businesses are about to be severely buffeted by headwinds from another tick up in energy prices, higher National Insurance tax and rising interest rates putting pressure on family finances. Consumers may pull in their purse strings with further inflation-driven price hikes expected over the months ahead. Shares believes the ...

The FTSE 100 closed Thursday’s session fractionally lower, off 0.06% at 7,585.01 points, though the FTSE 250 ended 0.27% higher at 22,714.98 as select travel and leisure names rallied, including EasyJet (EZJ), Trainline (TRN), TUI (TUI) and JD Wetherspoon (JDW). The blue chip benchmark began on the front foot, boosted by miners reacting to news from China, but a drop in the oil price and a ...

London’s FTSE 100 was flat by midday at 7,585.03 points as investors weighed the risks posed by interest rates and inflation and foods-to-fashion conglomerate Associated British Foods (ABF) dipped lower, while the FTSE 250 crept 0.23% higher to 22,707.35. US stocks were expected to break higher after lurching back into the red in late dealings on Wednesday as investors continued to pore over ...

The owner of the Primark discount clothing chain, Associated British Foods (ABF), fell 1.7% to £20.95 despite providing the market with some reassurance on the impact of the Omicron variant on the business and maintaining full year guidance. Primark is entirely reliant on high street footfall as it sells all of its products in stores rather than online. Yet in the run up to Christmas ...

The UK equity market started Thursday’s trading struggling for direction despite positive trading updates from companies including Spirent Communications (SPT) and Associated British Foods (ABF). However the performance of overseas markets provided contradictory messages with the US equity markets ending their session on a weaker note, despite treasury yields retracing from their highs. In ...

UK stocks began the shortened trading week on the front foot with the FTSE 100 up 65 points or 0.9% to a new year-high of 7,437 points in early trading. Leading the market higher were domestically oriented consumer and financial stocks including retailers AB Foods (ABF), Next (NXT) and high street bank Lloyds (LLOY). Shares in Asia fell overnight as investors continues to fret over the ...

Shares in Associated British Foods (ABF) firmed up 0.5% to £19.44 after the FTSE 100 conglomerate said its Primark fashion business is trading ahead of expectations and with better margins as the firm faces into the most important selling period of the year. In a short trading update ahead of its annual generating meeting, the foods-to-fashion giant also reiterated full-year guidance for ...

UK investors decided caution was the order of the day on Friday after disappointing domestic GDP data and ahead of a U.S. inflation report which could see consumer prices rise by 6.7% on an annual basis, the highest level since 1982. Between September and October, the UK economy grew by just 0.1% compared with prior-month growth of 0.6% and a forecast of 0.4%, leaving it 0.5% smaller than it ...

Distribution and logistics provider Wincanton (WIN) posted a strong increase in first half sales and earnings thanks to new customer wins and contract extensions, lifting the shares as much as 5% to 400p in early trading. Revenues for the six months to September were £690 million, up 19.3% on last year which was heavily impacted by the disruption caused by Covid, but more significantly up ...

On an invested sum of £210,000, the return over two years on my SIPP and stocks and shares ISA active retirement portfolio of around 30 shares is 12.4% excluding dividend payments. I have been documenting my investing experience in Shares since August 2020 and these articles have provided readers with an insight into how I try to make money from the markets and manage my ...

Shares in Associated British Foods (ABF) rallied strongly on better-than-expected full-year results (9 Nov) and news the foods-to-fashion conglomerate will pay a 13.8p special dividend and seek to buy back shares under a new capital allocation framework. Yet the real excitement surrounded the upbeat outlook for discount clothing chain Primark, which appears to have smartened up its stores ...

UK equity markets struggled for directions ahead of the release of US producer price index data this afternoon with investors expecting the year-on-year rate for October to dip slightly to 8.6%. Investors will be watching closely for an indication that inflationary pressures are subsiding in line with central bank expectations. At lunchtime the FTS100 and FTSE 250 Indexes were trading ...

Shares in food and retail conglomerate AB Foods (ABF), a recent Shares recommendation, jumped 7% to £19.85 as investors looked past the tough trading conditions of the last 12 months to a ‘much improved’ margin and profit outlook for its fast-fashion chain Primark in the coming year. Group revenues for the 53 weeks to mid-September were up 1% to £13.88 billion on a constant currency basis ...

The promise of a quick return to form at fast-fashion chain Primark saw investors pile into owner Associated British Foods (ABF) in early trading on Tuesday, but FTSE 100 gains were capped by weakness in UK banks. Barclays (BARC), HSBC (HSBA), Lloyds (LLOY) and NatWest (NWG) were all off by varying degrees. Leading shares have indeed made an underwhelming start as the downbeat mood of the ...

With the FTSE touching post-pandemic highs and US markets pushing towards record levels, it’s reasonable to ask if there is any value left in stocks. The problem for investors looking for income and capital gains is, with rock-bottom returns on bonds and constant central bank support, there are few alternatives to stocks and shares. However, despite the recent surge in one or two cyclical ...

Overshadowed by the negative hit to Primark’s sales from the ‘pingdemic’ and a slowdown in its new store roll-out caused by Covid restrictions was news that the discount fashion chain is progressing the initial design and development for its new digital platform. Furthermore, the recruitment of new talent ‘to create a new digital capability within the business’ is ...

London’s FTSE 100 finished Monday’s session 0.56% higher at 7,068.43 points as a risk appetite rebound took oil prices higher and drove demand for index heavyweights Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) and BP (BP.), shares in both improving by more than 2% to £14.57 and 302.3p respectively. Amid the FTSE 250 ranks, low-cost airline EasyJet (EZJ) fell 14% to 586.4p on a UBS downgrade, having announced ...