M&S reports sales boost but warns of tough 2010 January 6, 2010 MARKS & SPENCER has reported a rise in sales for the three months to Christmas but warned of a tough year ahead. The retailer saw like for like sales rise by 0.8 per cent with record takings on food on 23 December. Food sales overall were 0.4 per cent up on the previous year with [...]
MARKS AND SPARKS BOSS ROSE SUFFERS A SARTORIAL SETBACK January 5, 2010 IT’S a good job Marks and Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose can look forward to updating the market later today on his firm’s encouraging trading over Christmas, since The Capitalist can reveal he’s about to suffer a disappointment in the style stakes. Rose, you see, has a reputation in the City for being one of [...]
Banks push FTSE higher but vaccine worries hit pharma January 5, 2010 THE leading share index ended 0.4 per cent higher on yesterday, hitting a fresh 16-month closing high, as banks and commodity stocks rose, but gains were capped by a fall in drugmakers on concerns over vaccine sales. The blue chip FTSE 100 closed 22.16 points higher at 5,522.50, its highest close since 2 September 2008 [...]
UK and European markets start year in the red January 4, 2010 UK and European stock markets are set to start the year in the red, after ending 2009 close to their highs of the year. GFT is quoting the FTSE 100 index to open down as much as 39 points from Friday’s close, at a level of 5,373. The German DAX is also expected to start [...]
M&S LEADS HIGH STREET RECOVERY January 4, 2010 HIGH street bellwether Marks & Spencer is this week expected to report its first sales growth in two years, boosting hopes that British consumers have cast aside their gloom and started spending again. The retail giant will update the market on Wednesday on how it fared over Christmas, with analysts expecting M&S to post like-for-like [...]
Seasonal trends can hurt FTSE100 January 3, 2010 IT’S worth remembering that seasonal trends can cause some unexpected moves in the financial markets. So far this decade January has been a bad month for the equity markets. The FTSE 100 has declined seven times out of the last 10 Januarys and lost on average more than 5 per cent during this seasonal trend. [...]
Bank jitters and commodity weakness hits London stocks December 17, 2009 Jitters in the financial sector prompted by tough new proposed regulations sent banks sliding yesterday while commodity stocks also retreated on weaker raw material prices, pulling the FTSE 100 down 1.9 per cent by close. The FTSE 100 closed down 102.65 points at 5,217.61, having closed 34.49 points, or 0.7 per cent, higher on Wednesday [...]
Supermarkets score for both value and reputation December 15, 2009 In the highly-competitive world of supermarkets, there are two basic types of brand: those which are “cheap and cheerful”, which focus on low cost while maintaining reasonable quality; and those which cost more but make a feature of the higher quality products. These show up very clearly in the respective average BrandIndex scores from the [...]
THE TIPSTER December 14, 2009 SPORTS retailer Sports Direct is continuing to do well, rising to as high as 110p last week after opening Monday’s trading session at 102p. The stock lost some ground towards the end of the week, but there could be another recovery to come in the run up to Christmas. ShortsandLongs.com has a rolling spread of [...]
Tesco takes the gloves off as Christmas price war hots up December 6, 2009 Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco has launched its most aggressive Christmas discount drive, designed to blow its upmarket rivals out of the water. The supermarket giant is slashing the prices of more than 200 products in its Finest range in a bid to stop shoppers defecting to Waitrose and Marks & Spencer for luxury food treats. [...]