Richemont, the owner of luxury jewellery brand Cartier, fired up the jewellery sector after reporting sales miles ahead of expectations for the quarter to end December 2024.
Having been worried that sales would continue the weak trends seen earlier in 2024, the Cartier owner turned that on its head by reporting sales up 10% to €6.2 billion in the three months.
Market forecasts had been for 1% growth.
As well as Cartier, Richemont owns watch brands Piaget, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Shares in the Swiss group leapt 16% to Sfr161 on the news with rivals across the sector getting a read-through boost.
LVMH and Gucci owner Kering both rose 7%, while UK-listed Burberry Group PLC (LSE:BRBY) jumped 72p to 1,034p.
US broker Bernstein said the update would boost hopes that the trough in the luxury sector might have been reached, though Richemont said the situation in China still remained very ‘challenging’.
Chinese sales dropped by 18% but this was more than offset by a 22% rise in the Americas as spending rebounded following the US presidential election.
No guidance for the coming year was given by Richemont.