Dealers were on the edge today after a mixed performance in the Far East tookthe shine off New York’s strong overnight performance.
While Tokyo continued its advance towards the 17,000 level, continuing woessaw Hong Kong slip further as confidence flagged despite on-going attempts bythe IMF to rescue the region from total collapse.
This left the FTSE-100 Index an uncertain 14.7 points higher at 5292.9 astraders awaited this morning’s retail sales figures.
Despite evidence pointing to a mixed high-street performance in December witha slow start followed by a festive surge, spending is expected to have bouncedback since November.
However, mounting concerns that a strong pound was causing serious harm toBritish exporters left the City divided over whether the Bank of England wouldraise rates next month.
Meanwhile, convenience store operator Watson & Philip, which plans to employ20,000 new staff in the next five years at its Alldays shops, unveiled recordprofits at £21.5m, up from £18.8m the previous year.
The strong results impressed the City and it improved 6p to 523p.
But JD Sports, which has 91 stores in the UK, experienced a disappointing fallin sales for the half year to the end of September and the company said thetrend in the second half was failing to lift. JD Sports tumbled 18p to 112p.
Pub group SFI – formerly Surrey Free Inns – saw a 106% jump in pre-taxprofits to £2.2m in the first half on that back of an 82% surge in salesto £12.5m. SFI, however, disappointed investors and slipped 5p to 150p.
PA News 21/01/98
