Monday, 11th June: Poundworld announced in the later part of the morning that they have went into administration after struggling to find a rescue buyer before the upcoming rent payment which is due on the 24th June. The closure of 355 stores is set to effect over 5,000 employees. As many of Poundworld’s peers on the high street, the chain has struggled to keep up with high product cost inflation, weaker consumer confidence, declining footfall and high competition win the discount retail market.
The positive sentiment surround President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un sent the blue-chip index higher for the entirety of the day. After Trump’s first meeting of his summit with Prime Minister of Singapore, we were given the impression that he had high hopes for the meeting with Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, and he seemed somewhat unfazed by any possibility that could result in the historic meeting being a disaster.
The FTSE 100 was 0.86% higher at 7747 in the afternoon. Leading the way was Evraz, trading more than 8.0% higher on the day, and c.46.8% higher ytd. At the bottom of the index was Old Mutual, down almost 3.0% following the announcement of the price range regarding their offer of ordinary shares of Quilter plc.
European indices, including the DAX 30 and CAC 40 were up 0.64% and 0.43% up respectively, and the FTSE 100 was up 0.73% at 7737.43.