The fall in Next’s share price this year has been truly startling, this for a company committed to support that share price by means of almost £300 million of share buybacks this financial year. Next has always been assiduous in keeping the market up to date with trends and has been sounding quite gloomy on several occasions this year, so there is always the suspicion that it is being punished for such openness.
The shares rose 169p to £49.79 yesterday amid a sense of relief that the third-quarter trading update was not significantly worse. Total sales in the quarter off by 3.5 per cent reflected a very strong performance the previous year, when Next enjoyed a combination of favourable weather, for a change, and the