Sector movers: Retailers on the rise

Home Retail Group is among the stocks lifting the retail sector.

The Argos and Homebase operator said benchmark profit before tax for the year will be around £290m, slightly ahead of current market expectations.

In the 8 weeks to 27 February, total sales at Argos declined by 6.6% to £537m. Total sales at Homebase were held at £205m.

Elsewhere in the retail sector, staff at employee-owned department store operator John Lewis are to share in a £151m bonus pot after the company reported a sharp rise in profits.

The bonus will be shared among 70,000 staff who will receive 15% of their annual salary. Pre-tax profits at John Lewis, which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain, climbed to £307m in the year to January 30, up by 9.7% from the same period a year ago.

Another retailer of sorts, funeral services provider Dignity, is higher after it said pre-tax profits in the year climbed to £37.5m from £35.4m on revenues that rose to £184.7m from £175.8m.

Smith & Nephew is helping drag the health care and equipment services sector lower.

Smith & Nephew's loss of a patent law suit with US firm KCI over its foam implants is a setback but unlikely to have any significant impact on earnings, brokers Morgan Stanley, Charles Stanley and Panmure Gordon all suggest. The shares are still in the red though.

Not all stocks in the sector are lower. Nestor Healthcare is in the blue.

The healthcare staffing group saw profits fall sharply as it sold its Carewatch social franchise business, but said it was seeing good growth despite uncertainty leading up to the election. Pre-tax profits in the year to December 31 fell to £7.3m from £30.4m as revenues fell to £152m from £163.3m.

Top performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 1,821.20 +2.38%
General Retailers 1,644.19 +1.46%
Oil Equipment Services & Distribution 17,412.87 +1.46%
Alternative Energy 7,074.96 +0.85%
Travel & Leisure 4,571.80 +0.67%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,721.45 -2.26%
Mining 23,158.95 -1.74%
Banks 5,025.74 -0.86%
Forestry & Paper 4,879.43 -0.74%
Real Estate Investment & Services 1,582.26 -0.70%