Persimmon has tentatively convinced the market that the worst is behind it. Shares in the housebuilder have rallied by more than a quarter over the past month.
Better sentiment has been prompted by hopes that demand is stabilising. The sales rate improved in the five weeks since the end of September to 0.59. That is higher than a weekly rate of 0.48 in the third quarter.
Yet some of that is thanks to bulk sales to institutional investors. Strip out those and the ex-bulk sales rate comes in at 0.46, Barclays points out, which meansthat the uplift is less pronounced than it might seem at first.
The wider economic indicators are mixed. Interest rates may have stabilised, which is promising for mortgage affordability, yet transaction
