Boohoo, Asos shares leap on anecdotal evidence about sales spikes

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 7, 2020

Boohoo is one of the few big-name UK fashion retailers not to have updated the market on how its trading is doing. And in the absence of solid guidance, this week it seems that some negative reports about inadequate social distancing in its warehouses have actually sent its share price much higher.

This rise has also boosted its overall market valuation with the shares on Tuesday morning up almost 13% compared to Monday, giving the company a valuation of £2.66 billion.

The rise has come after reports at the weekend focusing on online fashion retailers spoke to workers who were concerned that a rush of orders has meant they can't keep enough of a distance from each other. But investors looking to pick up bargain shares focused on comments such as one warehouse worker saying Boohoo had processed 400,000 orders last week compared to 120,000 in a usual week.

While that comment wasn't an official statement from the company, investors are looking to pounce on any information and any shares at the moment whose prices have fallen and that look like they could generate a big profit on the recovery. 

The same effect has been seen with Asos shares. It was up almost 30% on Tuesday morning giving the company a market value of £1.26 billion. 

Both shares had also risen on Monday, helped not only by those weekend news stories, but also by a level of cautious optimism that the downturn may not last as long as some had feared.