Burberry and Marks & Spencer are vying to be the worst performer in the FTSE 100 after disappointing updates from the two retailers.
At the moment Burberry is winning - or losing - with a 76p fall to £15.10, or nearly 5%. The luxury goods group said second half sales had jumped 18%, driven by strong growth in the UK, France and China. But this was slightly below expectations, hence the share price reaction. Matthew McEachran at Singer Capital Markets said:
Burberry's second half update shows total underlying revenue rose by 18% to £1.027bn in the 6 months to 31 March, around 2% below consensus expectations of £1.048bn. In the final quarter like for like retail revenue rose by 11%, compared to 13% in the third quarter and 16% in the first half.
However the company expressed confidence in the outlook, with China an increasingly important market for luxury goods groups. Bethany Hocking at Investec said:
The shares reached a new high intra-day yesterday, and given the lack of upgrades today could see weakness, but we are happy to remain buyers.
Meanwhile Marks has fallen 10.6p to 357.1p following news that a shortage of stock had hit sales. Overall the FTSE 100 is up 22.92 points at 5689.20 ahead of UK inflation figures.
