European Retail: COVID-19 to reshape retail permanently - MS
12/05/2020 09:37
** Morgan Stanley does not see easing of lockdown measures
as the beginning of the end of COVID-19's impact on the retail
industry and keeps its cautious stance
** It expects sector earnings in 2020 and 2021 to be 62% and
33% lower, respectively, than those delivered in 2019
** MS says that the changes to consumers' lifestyles, and
thus their spending behaviour, are likely to last much longer
than until a vaccine becomes widely available
** "The strength of the balance sheet, how it will be
impacted by ongoing social distancing measures, how cyclical it
is, how deep the recession is going to be, and how consumer
behaviour changes longer term" is what will determine the
stocks' value, MS says
** The broker names AB Foods ABF.L , Kingfisher KGF.L ,
Marks & Spencer MKS.L as its new top picks
** It cuts Boohoo BOOH.L and Dunelm DNLM.L to
"underweight" seeing them as overvalued and moves all other
companies in its coverage to "equal-weight"
((daria.kowalewska@tr.com))