‘Black Friday’ nerves hit Argos owner Home Retail

Home Retail, the biggest household goods retailer in Britain, warned on its profit outlook yesterday, blaming uncertainty ahead of the Christmas trading period and increased investment at its Argos chain.

Shares in the firm, which also runs the DIY chain Homebase, fell up to 16% after it forecast profit for its 2015 to 2016 year would be slightly below the bottom end of the current range of analysts’ forecasts.

Analysts had expected an underlying pretax profit of £115m to £140m (€156.8m to €190.8m), compared with £132m in the previous year.