It may be the start of a new month, but the FTSE remained caught ranging between 7400 and 7450 on another busy morning for earnings.
FTSE and GBP
Taking back the 0.3% it lost on Tuesday, the UK index showed little interest in breaching 7450, a level it has been stuck under for the last week or so. The pound, which put pressure on the index as it saw an end of April rebound, added 0.1% against the dollar and the euro, just about pushing cable to a 2-week peak of $1.305.
That trading landscape could shift, however, dependant on the state the latest manufacturing PMI, which is forecast to dip from 55.1 to 53.2 month-on-month.
J Sainsbury PLC (LON:SBRY)
Though Sainsbury’s posted a 0.9% drop in Q4 like-for-like sales and a 0.2% slide for the full year, it handily saw a better than expected 7.8% rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £635 million. Combine that with a pledge to ‘accelerate investment’ in its stores and technology AND cut its net debt by at least £600 million over the next 3 years, and the company was able to get some investors back on board.
Less than 24 hours after it was revealed to be the only ‘big four’ supermarket to see a sales decline over the last 3 months, the stock bounced 5.5% to hit a 2-week high of £2.34. That increase recovers the value lost following the ASDA-deal shutdown last week, but not the nastier decline incurred back in February when the CMA first cast doubt over its openness to the merger.
Next (LON:NXT)
Thanks to the sweltering weather other the Easter break, Next managed to smash its own forecasts for the first quarter, with full-price sales jumping 4.5% against the 3.2% expected. However, with its full year guidance broadly kept unchanged – it is actually expecting EPS to now rise 3.4% against the previously stated 3.6% – the stock failed to find a reason to continue a surge that sees it up 44% this year, instead slipping 0.6%.
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