Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
PURVEYORS of luxury and indulgence flirted with record stock market valuations this week as investors looked past a litany of bad economic figures, Middle East instability and the eurozone debt crisis to a bright future.
Dealers said successful share floats for such fashion icons as Prada in Hong Kong and Salvatore Ferragamo in Milan boosted interest and offered the prospect of further gains.
“This could be a record year in regards to margins, sales and share prices,” Francois Arpels, chief executive at investment bank Bryan Garnier said. Global banking giant HSBC forecasts a 15 per cent increase in demand for luxury goods in 2011.
The luxury sector, once seen as vulnerable to the first signs of trouble, appears to have taken on an extraordinary resilience in recent years, as shown by its performance after the start of the global economic slump in 2008. Better yet, luxury companies used the opportunities offered by the world recession ‘to refocus on leading products’, said Arpels.
