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MARKS AND SPENCER HOPES BOOSTED BY BOLLAND

Marks and Spencer gets boost from new boss

Wednesday November 25,2009

By Philip Waller

INVESTORS went bargain hunting at Marks & Spencer yesterday after it recruited Marc Bolland, the former boss of supermarket chain Morrisons, as its chief executive.

Shares in Marks & Spencer finished third on the FTSE 100 Index leader board after Accendo Markets urged investors to buy into the stock following last week’s appointment.

Accendo senior trader Charlie Menegatos praised the move to secure the services of Bolland, who led Morrisons back to profit after its troublesome integration of rival Safeway, although he said the Dutchman would have to achieve results quickly.

“Bolland’s appointment and the expectations that come with it should be enough to underpin positive sentiment towards M&S for some time,” Menegatos said.

Positive comments from Nomura on the general retailing sector also boosted M&S, helping it end the day 7¼p ahead at 389p.

The rise in M&S shares was one of the highlights of a session in which the Footsie gave up nearly a third of Monday’s gains, on the back of record gold prices, to finish 31.5 points adrift at 5323.9.

Banks were the focus of attention as the Bank of England disclosed it made secret loans to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS at the height of the financial crisis. RBS led the fallers with a decline of almost 4 per cent, down 1½p to 36¼p.

Mining firms retreated after Monday’s gains, with Kazakhmys down 39p at 1281p, Rio Tinto falling 93p to 3172p, Vedanta Resources easing 64p to 2355p, Xstrata weakening 18p to 1082p and Randgold Resources slipping 80p to 5040p.

Utilities were fighting back despite concerns about what regulator Ofwat will say in an announcement tomorrow about bills for the next five years.

United Utilities was the sector’s main beneficiary, up 8p to 485p. Meanwhile, power station operator International Power rose 3½p to 275½p after positive comment from broker Evolution Securities.

British Gas owner Centrica added 2½p to 262p and National Grid rose 6p to 661p.

Burberry became the fashion victim of a broker downgrade from Morgan Stanley early on and ended the day down 6p at 571p.

The Dairy Milk maker Cadbury, down 6p to 808p, was also in the red following the previous day’s gains on hopes of a bidding battle between existing bidder Kraft Foods and potential bidders Nestlé, Hershey’s and Ferrero.