Consumer confidence to increase as market rallies

Economic recovery should improve consumer confidence and lead to a better performing but polarised r...

Economic recovery should improve consumer confidence and lead to a better performing but polarised retail sector. In Japan, the retail sector has underperformed the market from 1 January to 10 May. Over this period the market was down 1.1% in yen terms, while the retail sector fell 13.8%. Despite this, Stewart Ivory is positive on the sector, although Japan fund manager Anja Balfour believes it is highly polarised in terms of the types of retailers and quality of stocks. There is currently lacklustre consumer spending even though retailers are benefiting from the recovering economy to som...