0036 GMT - Accent Group's trading update indicates that the Australian foootwear retailer's heavy discounting has failed to sustain sales growth, E&P associate analyst Kade Madigan says. Madigan tells clients in a note that Accent's declining gross margin is consistent with external retail data suggesting that strong Black Friday trade was offset by weakness around Christmas. More positively, the fact that earnings were in-line with his expectations implies that Accent's first-half cost-of-doing-business was about 3% lower than he had forecast. He says this lower cost base should help offset the impact on analysts' forecasts of lower second-half sales and margin assumptions.(stuart.condie@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2025 19:36 ET (00:36 GMT)

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