Dunelm sitting pretty as shares rise

Dunelm shares rose by 5% in early trading on Wednesday after it revealed its like-for-like sales went up by 9.3% in the 13 weeks to 30 September.

That made the home furniture retailer the biggest riser on the FTSE 250, which overall dropped 15 points to 20131.28 at just before 09:00 BST.

The FTSE 100 also dropped first thing and was down four points at 7533.76.

Packaging company Mondi was the index’s biggest early loser with its shares falling by just over 8%.

Hospital equipment supplier Smith & Nephew’s shares went up by 3% with shares in EasyJet and Whitbread among other early risers.

There was a 6.5% fall in the shares of Provident Financial, the parent company of Vanquis Bank, which was fined £75,000 on Tuesday for sending nuisance texts and emails.

On the currency markets, the pound was little changed against the dollar at $1.3206 and was slightly lower against the euro at €1.1156.