86 038
Fashion Jobs
By
Reuters
Published
Oct 5, 2009
Download
Download the article
Print
Text size

Fast Retailing surges on September sales jump, upgrade

By
Reuters
Published
Oct 5, 2009

TOKYO, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Shares of Fast Retailing (9983.T) surged more than 12 percent to a nine-month high on Monday 5 October after its Uniqlo casual clothing chain in Japan posted its biggest jump in same-store sales for 10 months, as demand for autumn goods was boosted by the early onset of cold weather.

Uniqlo
Uniqlo, Sports Campaign, spring-summer 2009

The clothing retailer recorded a 31.6 percent jump in same-store sales from a year earlier in September, as colder weather in the month helped drive up sales of items such as synthetic leather jackets and flannel shirts, the company said. A five-day weeked also helped increase customer traffic, it said.

Japan has been hit by prolonged weak consumer spending, with many department stores and supermarkets suffering sharp sales declines for months.

Following the strong monthly sales, Morgan Stanley raised its rating to "overweight" from "equal-weight."

Fast Retailing was up 12.2 percent at 13,220 yen as of 0112 GMT, after starting the day 15.3 percent higher. (Reporting by Aiko Hayashi, Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Joseph Radford)

© Thomson Reuters 2024 All rights reserved.