London, January 8, 2026, 08:42 GMT — Regular session
- Marks & Spencer shares rose in early London trade after its Christmas-quarter update.
- Food like-for-like sales rose, while clothing and home stayed weaker.
- The retailer kept its full-year guidance unchanged.
Marks & Spencer Group plc (MKS.L) shares rose 2.8% to 337.8 pence by 0842 GMT, reversing earlier-week weakness as investors digested the retailer’s Christmas-quarter update. The stock is still well below its 52-week high of 417.5 pence and above the 315.5 pence low. 1
In a statement, M&S said food sales rose 6.6% in the 13 weeks to Dec. 27, with like-for-like sales — a measure that strips out new store openings — up 5.6%. Its Fashion, Home & Beauty business fell 2.5%, with like-for-like sales down 2.9%, and the group left its full-year guidance unchanged. 2
The update lands as investors try to pin down whether Britain’s retailers can keep volumes moving after a choppy year for household budgets, with food holding up better than non-food. Industry data earlier this week showed UK grocery sales up 3.8% year-on-year over four weeks to Dec. 28, and flagged subdued consumer confidence heading into Christmas. 3
For M&S, the bar has also been about recovery. The company has been working through the aftermath of a cyber hack that disrupted operations, particularly online, and it has said it expects to be fully recovered by the end of its financial year in March. Reuters has reported that first-half profit slumped 55.4% after an online shutdown pushed Fashion, Home & Beauty sales down 16.4%. 4
Analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital said he was not changing his full-year estimates after the update, pointing to a forecast pre-tax profit of 655 million pounds. He argued that if M&S meets longer-term expectations, “the stock [is] undervalued,” citing discounts to peers. 5
The numbers also sit in a noisy peer backdrop. Next raised its annual profit outlook earlier this week after stronger full-price Christmas sales, while noting a tougher consumer backdrop for the year ahead; on the day of that update, M&S shares were down 1.4%. Tesco, meanwhile, reported stronger Christmas trading on the food side of the sector, a reminder of where investor attention has been sitting. 6
Still, the split in M&S’s trading leaves a gap that the market keeps circling: food continues to do the heavy lifting, but clothing depends more on footfall, weather and discounting. If clearance cuts deepen through January, or if store demand stays thin, investors will start pressing harder on margins rather than sales growth.
