As Woolworths closes its final stores today, top winner Next and its high street rival Debenhams are two retailers announcing a drop in sales in the pre-Christmas period.
Next Retail sales were down -3.0% in the period July 29 to December 24 2008. Like for like sales in the 347 stores were down -7.0%. The group's share price was up 73p in early trading, having opened at 1,164p. Similarly Debenhams saw its past 12 weeks sales down 3.3%, seeing its share price pushed up to 36.75% this morning. The FTSE 100 index opened at 4,584.90, having closed almost 18 points higher on Monday as more City traders returned to work after the holiday period. Meanwhile specialist chemicals firm Johnson Matthey was the index's biggest loser, down 3.66% to 1,080p, result...
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