Home Retail Group Plc (HOME), J Sainsbury plc (SBRY): 3 FTSE Shares Hitting New Highs

LONDON — The last-minute deal that saved Cyprus has boosted the FTSE 100 today, along with other European markets. The index of top U.K. shares is up 0.56% to 6,429 points as of 9:35 a.m. EDT, though it is still below the five-year high of 6,534 set earlier this month.

Banking shares are behind much of today’s rise, but what else is up? Here are three shares setting new records.

J Sainsbury plc (LSE:SBRY)
Shares in supermarket J Sainsbury plc (LSE:SBRY) have been storming up over the past few weeks, and today they hit a new 52-week high of 380.2 pence before settling back a little to 377 pence at the time of writing. The shares are now up nearly 20% over the past 12 months and up 34% since their low point in June last year.

Last week’s fourth-quarter update certainly helped, telling us of a 7.1% rise in sales for the 10 weeks to March 16. But even after the recent share-price appreciation, forecast dividends still suggest a healthy yield of 4.5% for the year to March 2013, with respective yields of 4.6% and 4.8% penciled in for the following two years.

Interserve plc (LSE:IRV)
Interserve plc (LSE:IRV) shares are currently trading above their highest 52-week close, at 501.5 pence at the time of writing. That’s a gain of more than 50% over the past 12 months for the construction services company as confidence returns to the sector.

The year to December 2012 brought in pretty flat earnings, and more of the same is expected for 2013. But the shares are on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of less than 11, with a 4.3% dividend yield forecast — and the P/E drops to 9.5 based on an earnings rise forecast for 2014.

Home Retail Group Plc (LSE:HOME)
Shares in Home Retail Group Plc (LSE:HOME), the owner of the U.K.’s Argos and Homebase brands, are still soaring, today reaching another new 52-week high of 165.2 pence. Homebase is struggling a little in the current tough climate, but the turnaround at Argos has been remarkable, and the newly focused chain should be bringing in higher-than-expected profit.

Much of the firm’s future prospects are already built into the share price, though, with forecasts for the year to February 2014 putting it on a P/E of 19 — and for the year after, it only falls to 18.

The article 3 FTSE Shares Hitting New Highs originally appeared on Fool.com.

Alan Oscroft has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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