H&M Shares HigherShares in Swedish retailer H&M are trading a little higher today following news that the company’s retail sales growth jumped 23% in Q1. H&M reported a roughly $5 billion (49.17 billion SEK) jump, year on year, in the quarter ending in February. The strong rise in growth comes despite H&M noted it had reduced scale of sales on its clothing over the quarter, compared with previous cycles.The fashion group recently joined other global businesses in announcing that it was closing all of its stores in Russia, out of protest at the invasion of Ukraine. Around 4% of its total stores are based in Russia, which is the company’s 6th largest market. Stores have also been closed in Ukraine for now while the violence continues. In terms of assessing the impact of the closure of its Russian stores, data from Credit Suisse projects around a 14% slowdown in terms of local currency growth. Looking ahead, H&M will publish its full quarterly report on March 31st.Technical ViewsHM_BThe sell off in H&M shares has seen price breaking down below the 168.46 and 158.24 levels, with price trading down to test the bear channel low. For now, the 132.34 level has held as support and, with both MACD and RSI turning higher, the focus is on a retest of those broken support levels next. Should we continue lower from here, however, the focus is on the 118.68 level next.
Source: Tickmill
