Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

Retail stocks had another strong showing on Friday after a bullish update from High Street bellwether Next, which ensured that investors put the negative readacross from the Debenhams profit warning firmly behind them.Fashion and homewares retailer Next raised its full-year profit guidance today following a "significantly" better-than-expected fourth quarter. In the Christmas period from November 1st to December 24th, total Next Brand sales jumped 11.9%, bringing year-to-date growth to 5%, helped by improvements in seasonal knitwear, nightwear, gift offers and increased confidence in online deliveries.The group also revealed a special dividend of 50p a share and said it would return a further £300m of surplus cash in the year ahead, helping its share price rise as much as 10% before the close of trade.The news comes just a day after department stores John Lewis and House of Fraser reported excellent sales over the key Christmas period. According to The Times, the latter's Chief Executive John King said that the group expects to float on the London stock market by the end of the year.Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury were all registering decent gains on Friday with investors hoping that the retailers will follow suit with decent sales figures when they update the market on trading next week.Even Debenhams, which yesterday reported the departure of its Finance Director Simon Herrick following a gloomy trading update earlier in the week, was making solid gains this afternoon.Analysts at Numis Securities said on Thursday that the strong results of its peers showed that Debenhams' problems were more "company-specific" rather than indicative of trends across the wider industry.Top performing sectors so far todayGeneral Retailers 2,757.89 +3.79%Construction & Materials 4,419.75 +1.79%Household Goods & Home Construction 11,205.50 +1.29%Software & Computer Services 1,177.28 +1.27%Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,528.77 +1.10%Bottom performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 11,116.04 -1.24%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,248.52 -0.40%Mobile Telecommunications 5,502.14 -0.29%Industrial Metals & Mining 1,384.91 -0.23%Mining 16,245.59 -0.13%BC