Europe Movers: NEXT, Sodexo

Inga Muller
07 Jan, 2025
Frankfurt

The Euro Area inflation rebounded in December, after energy prices halted steep decline and food prices stabilized. 

The UK's home price index rose at a slower pace amid affordability issues. Italy's jobless rate dropped to a record low in December. 

The DAX index increased by 0.2% to 20,255.52; the CAC-40 index rose by 0.5% to 7,480.62; and the FTSE 100 index inched lower by 0.2% to 8,233.65. 

The yield on 10-year German bonds edged higher to 2.46%, French bonds rose to 3.28%, the UK gilts increased to 4.65%, and Italian bonds rose to 3.60%.

NEXT plc increased 3.8% to 9,916.0 pence after the specialty retailer reported strong sales in Christmas and raised its profit estimate for 2025. 

The retailer said full-price sales in the nine-week holiday period to December 28 increased 6.0% from a year ago. 

For the full-year ending in January 2025, group's pre-tax earnings are estimated to increase 10% to 1.01 million and pre-tax earnings per share by 11.4% to 843.8 pence, compared to previous estimate of 839.3 pence. 

Sodexo SA dropped 8.4% to €72.55 after the French food services and facilities management company reported a weaker-than-expected increase in revenue in its fiscal first quarter. 

Organic revenue in the quarter ending in November increased 4.6% to Є6.4 billion, after higher sales in Australia, Brazil, and India were offset by the weakness in Continental Europe. 

Organic growth was impacted by a higher base due to the Rugby World Cup last year, partially offset by the Paralympics this year, and excluding these events, underlying organic growth in the first quarter was 4.9%. 

Organic growth was driven by a 3% price increase, and the remainder increase was supported by new business contribution and sales volume growth.