Kingfisher Plc, Europe's biggest home improvements retailer, reported a 6.2 percent increase in first-half profit on Thursday but warned that it expected the second half would be tough in the UK market.
Kingfisher, which owns UK market leader B&Q and France's Castorama, made an adjusted pretax profit of 189.6 million pounds ($382.3 million) for the six months to August 4, up from 178.5 million last year, on sales up 9.8 percent at 4.8 billion.
The group had been expected to post profit of 184.6 million pounds, according to the average forecast of five analysts given to Reuters Estimates, and within a 173.5-190.1 million range. "In the UK, all our businesses delivered sales growth in a market which remains relatively weak," Group Chief Executive Gerry Murphy said in the results statement.
"We expect the second half to be tough as recent interest rate rises and current uncertainty in financial markets affect customer behaviour," he added. Shares in Kingfisher, which have underperformed the UK general retailers' index by 5.5 percent so far this year, were up 0.2 percent at 192.5 pence by 0745 GMT - valuing the company at 4.3 billion pounds - and trailing the DJ Stoxx index of European retailers, which was up 0.4 percent.
"These numbers should come as a relief to the market, but once short positions are unwound, we see little else to push the stock in the short term," Seymour Pierce analyst Richard Ratner said in a note.
Landsbanki analyst Charles Nichols said he was leaving his full-year forecasts unchanged, adding in a note: "... but with the better-than-expected first-half outcome, this makes the full year a little more secure. "We retain our 'hold' stance and would expect a modest positive reaction to these numbers," he added.
According to the average of 22 analysts' forecasts provided to Reuters Estimates, the company was expected to report full-year profits of around 405.9 million p3 million the previous year. Finance Director Duncan Tatton-Brown said he did not expect much change to analysts' profit forecasts for the year.
Kingfisher said group retail like-for-like sales rose by 4.3 percent in the first half. In July, Kingfisher reported that sales growth slowed in the second quarter as wet weather in June and July deterred shoppers at its B&Q stores.
When reporting first-half results last week, rival Home Retail Group Plc said trading had been tough at its Homebase do-it-yourself chain after Britain's wettest summer on record, with like-for-like sales down 8 percent in the second quarter. However, the outlook for the UK economy and its effect on consumer confidence remain uncertain.