It was another slow start for the European markets, the region straining to eke out another round of highs.
With its miners in retreat, pulling back after a streak of very strong sessions, the FTSE trickled 0.1% lower, once again failing to cross 7400. The DAX – lifted by a surprise jump in German factory orders, from -0.4% to 1.3% – stretched to 13180 following a 0.2% increase, with the CAC building to a fresh 12-year peak after adding another 10 points.
The muted open extended to the forex markets. Cable was flat, the pound holding off the election jitters that arose at the start of the week to sit at $1.2885. Against the euro sterling gave back a slither of yesterday’s gains, the 0.1% drop still keeping it the right side of €1.1625.
Elsewhere Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) avoided a nasty fall on Wednesday despite an unfashionable set of interim results. Clothing and home like-for-likes dropped 5.5%, a fall that was barely countered by a decent 0.9% rise in comparable food sales. This caused revenue to drop 2.1%, while also leading to an alarming 17.1% plunge in pre-tax profit to £177 million. Yet the stock, in response, rose more than 5%, perhaps because of CEO Steve Rowe’s claim the clothing and home division was ‘making up for lost time’ in the second half, and that it still has the Ocado (LON:OCDO) venture in the pipeline.
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