Market Report: Ted Baker continues to strut its stuff

Ted Baker continues to strut its stuff. Strong demand for the fashion chain’s spring and summer collection helped drive sales up by 24.2 per cent in the 18 weeks to 6 June. The FTSE 250 company, which rose 35p to 2,850p, revealed that retail sales grew 18.9 per cent in the period, while online and wholesale sales increased by 46.9 per cent and 41.2 per cent respectively.

International growth is top of the agenda, with the North American business faring well and new stores just opened in far-flung parts of the world such as Azerbaijan and Thailand. “The Ted Baker brand is unique ... and in our view is beginning to gain momentum from a global perspective,” said Cantor Fitzgerald’s retail analyst Freddie George.

The FTSE 100 ended the week 61.82 points lower at 6,784.92. The IMF walking away from talks with Greece hardly filled investors with much confidence about a possible deal on its debt.

Royal Mail, up 13.7p to 507p, recovered from the losses that followed the Government’s share sale at 500p. Woodford Investment Management, run by the star fund manager Neil Woodford, said its stake in the postal service was now up to 5.2 per cent.

On the mid-cap index, bwin.party fell 7.4p to 97.6p after revealing that the founders of PartyGaming, which merged with bwin in 2011, are selling up to 50  million shares. Emerald Bay and Stinson Ridge agreed to dispose of their stakes in October 2013 as part of the New Jersey gaming licence application process. They were told they had two years in which to do so. Analysts questioned the timing of the sale given that bwin is at the centre of a bidding war between smaller rival 888 Holdings and both GVC Holdings and Canada’s Amaya.

In the small-cap world, shares in Windar Photonics, which makes parts for wind turbines, were blown 10p lower to 140p after it warned of a “material revenue shortfall”.

Shares in cash-strapped broker Daniel Stewart leapt 11 per cent to 2.98p. Rob Terry of Quindell fame owns more than 9 per cent of the company. Since first revealing his stake at the end of March, the value of Mr Terry’s investment has soared over 1,000 per cent.