Esprit Holdings was one of the few stand-outs on a bleak Hong Kong stock market yesterday as investors rushed in to snap up the company's shares after it released a solid set of interim numbers. Shares in the clothing retailer massively outpaced the Hang Seng Index to close up 4.24 per cent at a seven-month high of HK$15.95. The gains came after the company on Wednesday reported a 43.69 per cent jump in net profit to $555.25 million for the six months to December, on a turnover of $6.06 billion. Analysts were almost unanimous in their praise of the performance, but with war on the horizon and deteriorating economic fundamentals in Europe - one of Esprit's two key markets - there was also doubt as to whether the stock could travel much higher. 'Management has painted a rosy picture about its prospects but people are sceptical about consumer demand in Europe, and especially in Germany,' DBS Vickers Securities sales director Antony Mak Siu-leung said. Nonetheless, while some analysts were recommending that clients pocket their gains, UBS Warburg was among the houses upgrading its earnings forecasts, by 5.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent for this year and next, and price target on the stock, by 85 cents to $18.45. The stock is trading at just over 17 times this year's forward earnings, according to the investment bank's estimates. Graphic: esp14gbz
