Morrison: shares up after 'encouraging' trading update

(CercleFinance.com) - With four weeks of its financial year left, the British supermarket group Morrisons said on Tuesday that it expects full-year profit to be within the current consensus range.


This announcement comes after an "encouraging" trading update for the 22 weeks to 5 January.

During this "unusually challenging" period for sales, execution was "strong" and profitability "robust," Chief Executive David Potts said.

For the 22 weeks to 5 January, group like-for-like sales excluding fuel were down 1.7%, the retailer said. Group like-for-like sales including fuel were down 2.8%, it added. Total sales excluding fuel fell by 1.8%.

In its statement, Morrisons said that trading conditions remained challenging throughout the period, with continued uncertainty amongst customers, following on from last year.

However, the company managed costs well throughout the period, offsetting some of the challenging trading conditions.

In this context, Morrisons said it expects 2019/2020 profit before tax and exceptionals to be within the current range of analysts' forecasts, which has prompted its shares to rise by almost 3% in morning trading on the London Stock Exchange.

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