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Highlights
- UK consumer confidence goes up in July after declining for seven months, as per YouGov and CEBR.
- The overall mood of the people still continues to be weak around household finances.
- Workers in the UK also experienced a sense of increased job security.
As UK continues to stuggle amid high inflation and increasing cost of living crisis, there is something to cheer as overall consumer confidence witnessed a rise for the month of July. However, according to results of the latest YouGov survey, the rise in consumer confidence may be on the back of UK government's cost-of-living payments.
Consumer confidence had been falling in the UK since December 2021. This seven-month long span of decline has finally ended in July with the overall index from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and YouGov has surged by two points. In July, the UK Government came up with its first household finance measure for the economically weaker people, which led to the improvement in the index.
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Nevertheless, the latest estimates by the Bank of England suggest that inflation levels in the country are expected to hit 13% by the end of the year. Therefore, even with a boost in consumer confidence, the overall mood of the people continues to be weak around household finances. Improvement was also seen in the UK business activity, with the staff being somewhat more likely to say that their offices or factories are more engaged in work as compared to the past month and are anticipated to be busier in the future.
Workers in the UK also experienced a sense of increased job security. Dropping by 0.5 points, retrospective home price measure was the sole measure to witness a fall. Nevertheless, the optimism among homeowners has gone up after facing three months of worsening outlook. Increasing consumer confidence after months of deteriorating has given a welcome respite to Brits.
As the consumer confidence improves over time, UK investors can keep an eye on the following consumer stocks suggested by Kalkine Media® which are doing well presently.
Lookers plc (LON: LOOK)
The shares of the UK-based group engaged in car dealership, Lookers plc, were trading at GBX 78.20 at 8:34 AM (GMT+1) on Wednesday. LOOK enjoyed a market cap of £306.81 million along with P/E ratio of 5.43. LOOK has offered positive returns to investors of 19.88% and 10.11% on YTD and one-year basis, respectively, as of 10 August. The company is currently offering a dividend yield of 3.1% to investors on yearly basis.
British American Tobacco plc (LON: BATS)
The UK-based cigarette making business, British American Tobacco plc boasted of a market cap of £74,555.62 million and were up by 0.09% at 8:38 AM (GMT+1) on Wednesday. BATS was trading at GBX 3,313.00 and has offered its investors good returns of 21.58% and 24.51% on YTD and one-year basis. The P/E ratio of BATS stood at 14.20 along with an annual dividend yield of 6.7%.
Tate & Lyle plc (LON: TATE)
The shares of the UK-based supplier of food and beverages, Tate & Lyle plc, were down by 0.08% at 8:42 AM (GMT+1) on Wednesda. y and were trading at GBX 793.00. TATE had a market cap of £3,187.17 million and was offering an annual dividend yield of 2.9%. Tate & Lyle has offered positive returns to investors of 2.81% on one-year basis, but its YTD returns are negative as of 10 August, at -5.98%. The company is currently on yearly basis.
