Tuesday, July 24: Indices in Europe took a lead from those in Asia and opened in the green, as the FTSE 100(+0.70%) was lifted by rallying banking and natural resource stocks. Banking stocks were given a leg up intraday as swiss-listed UBS announced a Q2 profit beat, which spurred a positive read-across to London-listed banks. Natural resource stocks were lifted following the planned expansion of Chinese infrastructure spending, Glencore(+4.68%) led the charge higher for both the sector and the index, as sector peers were also lifted on the news.
Superdry(-7.78%) shares slumped on the news that the fashion brand’s co-founder Julian Dunkerton sold a 6.7% stake to institutional investors for £71m after the stock rallied 20% in the month to date, prompting brokers to downgrade the stock on largely flat guidance and the basis of the strong price rally.
Fevertree(+5.64%) closed out the day in the green after issuing interim results for FY2019 which saw revenues increase 45% to £104.2m, adjusted EBITDA grow 35% to £34m alongside an interim dividend which was hiked 40% to 4.22p. The solid set of number were accompanied by guidance which sees results comfortably ahead of expectations for the financial year.
The latest data for UK grocers from Kantar Worldpanel was indicative of Sainsbury’s struggling with 0.8% sales growth for the quarter to mid-July, a figure notably below sector peers and grocery price inflation of 1.8% over the same period. This result was in stark contrast with merger partner Asda which experienced sales growth of 3.7%, which was the best result enjoyed by traditional grocery players. According to analysts at the research group, shoppers visited supermarkets an extra 13 million times over the three month period, with BBQ and boozy items drawing footfall after a relatively successful World Cup.
Across Europe, indices were higher at the close with the FTSE 100 +0.70%, the DAX 30 +1.12% and the CAC 40 +1.04%.