Corporate reports cheers up fashion business

All is well that ends well. This could be the motto of the quoted

apparel companies this week, as most of the values gathered in the FashionUnited Top 100 Index have shown positive performances for the past days. Given this incipient recovery for the fashion business, the index closed yesterday in 981.09 points, rising by 20.9 from its previous position, 960.19 points.

This shared increase may respond to the last released data by the British Office for National Statistics, which stated recently that clothing and footwear sales rose 3.3% year on year by value and 4.2% by volume in June.

It should be taken into account that the date for first half corporate reports is approaching, and that normally these figures influx the performance of the quoted companies. Good sample of this is retailer VF Corp, which just reported a surge in second-quarter profit, driven by strong sales growth across its brands. The company also lifted its earnings and sales outlook for fiscal year 2010. Second-quarter net income attributable to the company was $110.83 million or $1.00 per share, compared with $75.53 million or $0.68 per share in the prior-year quarter. Reported data have transformed into a rise of 3.51% for the last trading session, just over passed by Skecher’s, which offered an extra 3.85% or Jones Apparel Group, increasing 4.33% its position.

On the other side of the table, Pacific Brands, with a drop of 2.5% or the more winter-liked Wolford, was reporting a cut close to 3.50% from the Austrian stock exchange. But Next and Puma AG -with similar losses of 7 and 7.05 points- have been the ones closing the session with less positive results.

In overall, it has been a good day for the apparel market in general FashionUnited Top 100 Index in particular, as less than 10 values listed in the selective shown negative performances and the major players pulled up the rest of the quoted companies.