Tuesday morning business bulletin

Sep 23 2008 By Andrew Mernin

The owner of JD Sports delivered some rare good news from the high street today after half-year profits jumped 71% and sales remained strong.

JD Sports Fashion, which trades from 430 sites, said it was delighted its performance following a profits haul of £9.1m for the six months to August 2.

Like-for-like sales were 6% higher, with the figure 5.8% stronger when including the subsequent six weeks of the trading year.

While JD faces tougher comparatives and challenging trading conditions in the months ahead, executive chairman Peter Cowgill said JD was ``strongly positioned" to deliver on current market expectations.

JD has fared better than rivals such as Umbro and Sports World owner Sports Direct because of its strong own brand offering and its reduced reliance on replica football kit sales.

The group has also boosted its sports business over the past four years by eliminating underperforming stores and reducing excess stock levels.

The FTSE 100 Index lost more ground today as concerns over US plans for a £383bn banking bail-out undermined blue-chip stocks.

Fears that haggling between Congress and the US Government over the terms of the rescue could delay or water down any moves saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 3%.

Asian markets followed Wall Street lower in response, and the Footsie lost 69.1 points to 5167.1 in early trading.

A sudden spike in oil prices to 130 dollars a barrel also added to market tensions as unease over the wider impact of the plan mounted.

Although prices on the new November contract eased back to around US$107, carrier British Airways was the biggest Footsie faller, down more than 5% or 11.25p to 207.25p.

Investors seeking to profit from falling share prices will be forced to reveal their hands when new disclosure rules come into force today.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has ordered those ``short-selling" more than 0.25% of shares in banks and insurers to tell the wider market on a daily basis.

Short-selling is when investors borrow stock in a company to sell it - hoping to buy it back more cheaply later and return it, pocketing the difference as profit.

The City’s watchdog slapped a temporary ban on the practice for 33 financial stocks last Thursday due to the ``disorderly" market conditions.

The new disclosure requirements - in force until January 16 - were also announced by the FSA in its short-selling crackdown to ensure market transparency. It will review the arrangements after 30 days.

Figures from research firm Dataexplorers.com showed that banking giant Barclays was the most ``shorted" financial company at the close of business last Wednesday, with 5.2% of its stock on loan.

The pound at 9am was US$1.8555 compared to US$1.8479 at the previous close while the euro at 9am was £0.7950  compared to £0.7947 at the previous close.