Hennes & Maurit Share Price (0HBP)

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) reported an unexpected decline of 5 per cent in its October comparable sales as the sovereign debt crisis took a hit on European demand. Analysts had expected the figure to rise by 0.4%. The world's second largest fashion retailer did report total sales (that include the 305 new stores opened in the last year) that managed to rise by 4%, but the growth still missed the 9% consensus estimate. H&M is currently trading down 2.73% to 213.60 kroner

By 9:47, shares of H&M were up +1.86% to 224.10kr.

The latest numbers show that Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) has left its multi-month streak of falling sales behind. Note that last April, H&M had reported that total sales fell 1% and same-store sales fell 10%. Inditex, the other giant in the fashion industry, revealed on Wednesday that its net earnings rose 30% in the first quarter. The stock jumped nearly 12%, catapulting its billionaire owner Amancio Ortega to the top of Bloomberg's list of the richest people in Europe.

Hennes and Mauritz showed that Spanish rival Inditex is not the only one that can bask in its own success after the Swedish company presented its sales figures for May. The textile retailer revealed that total sales rose by 12% in May, the last month of its fiscal second quarter, to 36.95bn Swedish krona (€4.18bn). The market consensus was forecasting an 8% increase. Like-for-like sales rose 3% while the market was expecting a 1% decline.