Luxury stocks boom as Richemont kicks off reporting season with a bang Retail Luxury stocks across the world have been given a boost by Cartier-owner Richemont’s booming sales figures this morning. Richemont’s report, the first set of luxury results covering the festive season, indicated that the luxury market may finally be recovering from a slowdown that has lasted nearly two years. Revenue from jewellery, Richemont’s biggest division, rose [...]
Freetrade: IG Group swoops for trading app Investing IG Group has acquired stock trading app Freetrade for £160m, as the FTSE 250 firm looks to target a new UK audience of traders. The trading platform, along with its 720,000 customers and £2.5bn in assets, will move to IG Group in mid-2025, subject to regulatory approval, the firm said in a stock exchange notice [...]
M&S, Greggs and Sainsbury’s shares slide on shaky outlook for UK economy Retail Marks & Spencer (M&S), Greggs, Sainsbury’s and B&M shares have all slumped today after investors took fright at warnings of a slowdown in consumer spending over the next year. Aside from Sainbury’s, whose results will be announced on Friday morning, all the firms released solid earnings updates this morning, with M&S reporting an 8.7 per [...]
Tesco shares drop despite bumper Christmas trading January 9, 2025 Tesco shares dropped two per cent in early deals this morning despite the retailer reporting abumper festive trading period. Food sales rose by 4.7 per cent in the six weeks to January 4, with a “particularly strong contribution” from fresh food, the grocer said. That’s more than double the market average of 2.1 per cent. [...]
Marks and Spencer shares plunge despite bumper results January 9, 2025 Marks and Spencer shares plunged by eight per cent in early deals this morning as investors digested the company’s Christmas trading update. The food and clothing retailer told markets this morning that food sales increased 8.7 in the 13 weeks to December 28, and sales of its new Christmas products grew 14 per cent. This [...]
Greggs: Sausage roll-maker passes two milestones despite ‘subdued’ footfall January 9, 2025 Greggs reported a record-breaking year in 2024 as the sausage-roll maker surpassed two key milestones, but warned on headwinds in 2025 after “subdued” footfall. In an update to markets today, the high street bakery reported an 11.2 per cent uptick in total sales, which sprung the company upwards of its sales milestone of £2bn. However, [...]
Close Brothers chief executive steps down after medical leave January 7, 2025 Close Brothers group chief executive Adrian Sainsbury has stepped down from his role after four months of medical leave. The FTSE 250 CEO began in the role in 2020 after more than 11 years at the company, joining Close Brothers as chief executive of its commercial arm before becoming director of the group’s main banking [...]
Grab the popcorn: Retail’s five most dramatic stories this year December 27, 2024 From Boohoo’s boardroom dramas to The Body Shop’s salvation in the nick of time, 2024 has been a big year in retail. City AM counts down its top five retail dramas this year (spoiler alert: Mike Ashley is at the centre of two of them). Asda tumbles down the supermarket charts Asda has faced a [...]
Luxury brands like Burberry set for a rebound – but bosses are still pessimistic December 26, 2024 It’s high-time for some good news in the luxury sector, with analysts predicting the industry may finally be approaching the bottom of its two-year downturn. With opportunities in the United States and China “not getting any worse”, analysts have predicted five to six per cent revenue growth in 2025 across the sector. Most remarkable of [...]
Barclays loses legal challenge to overturn FOS motor finance ruling December 17, 2024 Barclays lost a legal challenge against the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) over a ruling that it unfairly paid commission to a car finance broker