MRL Millers Retail

[airedale]

Massive volume, 25 miilion + shares, and a decent 6 cent price drop today.Could be a cathartic volume spike after a period of weakness.
Any ideas on who is selling,and buying of course.

[sharebattler]

Seeing what I can find but so far only have really significant sale that being a special sale of 19.480M that went through @ 1.40 at 12.04pm Aust eastern time. As there are only 243M shares on issue a change of substantial holding statement will follow.

[OldRider]

It seems to me that most retailers,especially those in the commodity sector,are struggling in the marketplace, and in a battle to retain volume, margins are suffering.I guess it's understandable in a market when so many offer the same or very simliar stock range

CML is one that is up a little,though after a down period, almost all others are flat or down, even CDO & ORL which operate in a different environment are down after doing well earlier.

Lesson might be that retail is not the place to be at the moment,and for a while to come?

[sharebattler]

Amongst the retailers CML has a substantial reliance on food which resists consumer spending cutbacks to a large degree plus they have benefited of late with their roll out of Coles Express service stations. The concept of discounted petrol after a $30 grocery spend is luring many customers either to shop at Cloes supermarkets for the first time or for them to return there to shop.

Suffering from warehouse sydrome (owns Crazy Clarks a warehouse competitor)

[airedale]

Enigma,agree on that one. The saving grace for MRL is that unlke the WHS -MRL is still making money-not losing it in OZ.
On a 6.5% yield I'd buy some more if I was cashed up.

[sharebattler]

Article in todays Melbourne Age may explain who the seller was ....

Original article by Leonie Wood
A large investor sold 19.48 million shares in Miller's Retail, at $A1.40 each, on 18 May 2004. The investor is believed to be Perennial Value Management, which had reduced its stake in the cut-price retail group from 9.67 per cent in June 2003 to 8.65 per cent in mid-March 2004. However, Perennial has not commented. In the months since January 2004, shares in Miller's Retail and in The Warehouse Group have each dropped 15 per cent. The Warehouse Group hopes new CEO, Ian Morris, may boost confidence among investors. Warehouse shares rose $A0.07 to $A3.84 on 18 May, while shares in Miller's Retail dropped $A0.06 to $A1.47.