Pound: Tourists and Burberry

pound: Burberry chief financial officer Carol Fairweather said the drop in the value of the pound had been so significant that tourists coming to the UK were splashing out, with its new satchel-style Bridle bag, the cheapest version of which starts at £1,200, among its current bestsellers, according to The Guardian. The Chinese are very much part of that, but all tourists are up in this quarter, the US as well, she said. The British company said a 30% surge in domestic sales helped counteract weaker performances in important overseas markets such as Hong Kong and a steep fall in orders from department store buyers, particularly in the US. The trench-coat maker said its full-year profits would also receive a £125m boost from the devaluation of sterling as about 80% of its sales are overseas. They are clearly influenced by foreign exchange rates movements but they are also really responding to everything they are seeing in the stores. Despite headline-grabbing initiatives such as making the clothes in last month London fashion week show instantly available online, dreamt up by its chief executive, Christopher Bailey, Burberry is grappling with an industry-wide slowdown. The update did not cheer investors, with Burberry shares ending the day as the biggest faller in the FTSE 100, down more than 7%. The stock was knocked by the decision by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, one of the company house brokers, to cut its rating from buy to neutral , noting that company share price had enjoyed a strong run after hitting a 14-month high on Friday. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.