London pre-open: Retailers in focus

9th Sep 2010 07:35

Retailers are likely to be in focus in early trading after supermarket chain Morrisons and Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group updated the market on trading.City sources expect a mixed opening, with the blue-chip index tipped to start around five points lower than last night's close.Retailer Home Retail Group said that unless Christmas is a cracker this year profits are likely to be in the bottom half of the range of analysts' estimates. Like for like (LFL) sales were down 5.0% from a year earlier at Argos but this was an improvement on the 8.1% slide in LFL sales in the first quarter. LFL sales at Homebase were unchanged from last year.Supermarket Morrisons posted profits broadly in line with expectations for the six months to August 1 as it delivered results for the first time under its new chief executive Dalton Philips. Pre-tax profits totalled £412m, down from £449m over the same period the previous year when they were boosted by an exceptional credit. Revenues climbed to £8.1bn from £7.5bn, a rise of 9%. Like for like sales were up by 0.9%.Housebuilder Redrow's legal completions were ahead of expectations at 2,587 in the year to end-June at a better than expected average selling price of £149,300 per unit. Underlying profit before tax was £0.7m, versus a loss of £44.2m the year before.