LONDON (ShareCast) - Retailers are out of sorts after JP Morgan cut price targets in the sector. Fashion chain Next is one of the FTSE 100’s worst performers after seeing its price target cut to 1,100p from 1,280p, while CD and DVD retailer HMV, whose price target the broker cut to 130p from 138p, is in the FTSE 250’s bottom 10.

Earlier today HMV said it is ahead of schedule in its recovery programme after a strong set of full-year results.

Profit before tax and exceptional items from continuing operations grew 25.2% to £56.6m in the year to 26 April 2008 from £45.2m the year before.

Total sales growth from continuing operations was 11.3%, with like-for-like sales up 7.3%. The UK and the Republic of Ireland saw like-for-like sales improvement of 11.4%, with Waterstone’s like-for-like sales up 3.3%.

Continued positive sentiment on telecommunications firms helps keep the sector in the blue, following Vodafone’s strong performance yesterday after it teamed up with community web site MySpace to create an interactive music web site. The stock has been upgraded to “outperform” from “underperform” by Exane BNP Paribas, which has helped limit its decline today. BT is the only stock in the sector posting gains.

Top performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,658.40 +0.23%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 3,250.70 -7.62%
Industrial Metals 8,236.40 -5.88%
General Retailers 1,239.00 -5.04%
Forestry & Paper 3,053.70 -4.38%

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