FTSE 100 movers: Retail boost from M&S and Next

4th Nov 2009 12:08

High street giants Marks & Spencer and Next moved to the top of the FTSE 100 leaders list on better than expected trading updates.M&S is to end its policy of only selling its own branded food products and will start introduce 400 top household brands in its food halls, but it was better than expected interim results that encouraged buyers.Group sales to end September grew 2.8% to £4.3bn. Adjusted profit before tax was slightly ahead of last year at £298.3m, while M&S generated net cash of £69.7m. Most analysts had expected profits of about £290m compared with £297.8m last year.Fashion chain Next upped its guidance for second half sales up to Christmas Eve after reporting better than expected sales in the third quarter. Retail like-for-like sales dropped 1.3% in the three month ended 31 October, while directory sales were up 5.1%, with both Next Retail and Next Directory performing ahead of the second half guidance the group gave in September. For the second half of the year, Next upped its like-for-like sales forecastto 0% to -3% compared with previous expectations of -3.5% to -6.5%. Directory sales are now seen growing between 4% and 6%, better than September forecasts of 0% to 2%. Miners are doing well on strong gains for metal prices. Silver has jumped strongly lifting Mexican miner Fresnillo, though all precious metals are up today.FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 816.50p +8.72%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,196.00p +6.79%Next (NXT) 1,925.00p +6.35%Home Retail Group (HOME) 301.40p +6.16%Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,795.00p +5.75%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 359.90p +5.54%Aviva (AV.) 399.40p +5.30%Burberry Group (BRBY) 561.00p +5.06%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,740.00p -1.19%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,218.00p -0.85%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,260.00p -0.79%Bunzl (BNZL) 645.50p -0.77%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,790.00p -0.67%Tesco (TSCO) 408.60p -0.54%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,069.00p -0.47%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 86.96p -0.42%