M&S loses spark: are retail stocks over?

performer following the financial crisis as it was able to undercut its peers on price.

Primark propped up the traditional foods part of the business, which includes the popular drinks brands Twinings and Ovaltine, and now accounts for more than 60pc of the group’s profits.

Lee Wild of Interactive Investor, the fund shop, said this could be a benefit but also prevented the more successful parts of the company The fall in Marks & Spencer’s share price so far this year The number of years M&S has been in the FTSE 100 index Lansdown, Lansdown another fund shop, said: “Its b background as a catalogue company m meant a lot of infrastructure was alread already in place, allowing it to expand on online faster than rivals, and it’s been ab able to continue capitalising on that he head start.” Profit expectations for the ful full year have been upgraded to £725m, some £10m ahead of the previous figure. fi The share price has risen by 42 42pc in 2019.

Analysts a at German bank Berenberg said the sp sports clothing shop had “bucked t the trend” of the high street. The firm has spent time and money improvin improving the experience for its custome customers. It is also a “key global strateg strategic partner” for major spo sportswear brands such as A American giant Nike. The company was t threatened by Mike Ashley’s Sp Sports Direct but has survived this chall challenge and is now valued three times tim higher than its rival. The retailer has more than double the sales of its peers and is among the best in online vendors. Berenberg said JD Sports “remains our top pick in the sector”. It has been among the best-performing British stocks, gai gainng 73.6pc in 2019.

Helal Miah of The Share Centre, a third fund shop, said that while it was difficult to be optimistic on the wider retail secto sector, investors could be more positi positive about Burberry. As a lux luxury retailer it is somewhat ins insulted from the issues that affe affect the rest of the market. It now focuses on cutting costs rather than expanding physical store numbers. Burberry has been a reasonable performer this year, with the shares gaining 26.6pc.