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The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
But let's take a look at some stocks on the move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor, Louise Moon. Louise, good morning. Loads of earnings around to get into. Let's start with the latest news from Larial.
Yes, the world's largest beauty group, had their first quarter results this morning. Shares are surging as a result. They were up almost ten percent this morning. So sales climbed in the first quarter, the strongest quarterly sales in two years, particularly on demand for their shampoo and their fragrances. They both saw double digit growth, but actually all units across Lorel grew, but those two were the strongest and essentially showing that it's proving to be a lot more resilient
than some of their peers. That obviously there's been you know, a bit of a consumer slow down given all of the geopilsical uncertainty hitting some of their peers, but Lorel faring better. So for example, before today's share price move. If you look back at how Laurel's stock has done this year so far, they're down about six percent, but if you compare that to esday lorder, for example, they're
down about twenty seven percent, so proving more resilient. If you get into kind of the regional breakdown in terms of that consumer China is still proving a bit of a weak spot for Laurel, as is being kind of seen across the whole industry. So sales did drop there, but less than expected, so still not totally negative. And then the Middle East has seen a bit of a bit of a negative impact from the war and from
changes they're from consumers. So the CEO said that he acknowledged that, but saying that even if consumers are worried, you know that there's what's what's called as the lipstick effect, they might still choose to spend their money on beauty and on those kind of items. So and Liss saying that the sales, you know, as he was kind of indicating, defies those worries about demand. It's a good set of results and faring a lot better than peers. So shares rising on.
The back of that, Yeah, lipstick effect. I I hope you say lip sync effect for a minute there enough looking completely different. Let's turn to w H Smith next. Not such good news for them, at least in the markets today. Their shoes down almost eleven percent.
Yeah, they touched in near fourteen year low this morning and the biggest drag on the foot C two fifty in London. They cut their full year outlook. They also suspended dividends. They'd already cut dividends or reduced them in December and now they've been suspended, essentially trying to prioritize delevering. Deleveraging for WH Smith. This is a fresh blow essentially,
so they'd already been struggling. They're trying to recover from a regulatory probe last year that was over an accounting scandal internally that triggered a stock slamp at the time and their CEO to resign. So that was already going on, so already trying to recover from that, and then we've
seen the impact of the Iran war. Obviously, w H Smith a travel retailer, so that's the reason that they've cut their full your outlook and they've got that cautious look ahead that's the Iran war, so kind of a double whammy for wh Smith. The executive chair Leo Quinn, he said that the immediate focus is to restore confidence, so he's kind of acknowledged that that lack of confidence they're both in the business and from consumers more generally.
And the results aren't just hitting wh Smith this morning, also hitting their peers, so the likes of SSP and a Volta, so dragging those lower as well. On the back of that.
Okay, the finally some moves for Via in France tell.
Us more yeah, slightly eving once in not earnings, but an m and a story. So the privacy firm Apollo is nearing a deal to buy one of their units. So for VIA's car interior's business, so it makes makes things for cars like door panels and other things. Four Via as a whole is a car tech company, so they do everything from those kind of interiors and seats to electronics, lighting, etc. So this is one of their units. So this potential deal from Apollo could value that unit
at about one point four billion euros. Talks are still ongoing, so it's not definitely a certain that this deal will come about, but shares are ticking higher as a result of this news. It's all part of four VIA's strategy to streamline. They've been trying to streamline the business boost growth.
We already knew they're.
In talks to sell the unit, so apollow and the valuation is the new news. It's already been been said by analysts to be a positive step that they're selling this focusing on deal leveraging. So Yeah, shares ticking higher, but still relatively flat on the year and far off still a all time high.
This Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.