DS Smith news ticks boxes for investors

The price of shares in FTSE 100 packaging firm DS Smith (LON:SMDS) rose by 3.04% to 332.30p (as of 14:00 GMT) after the company posted a trading update. Management said that volumes continued to increase since November despite on-going macroeconomic uncertainties. The integration of recently acquired operations has proceeded well, but export-led European markets remained subdued.

CEO Miles Roberts commented: “The Group has delivered a robust performance during the period within a challenging macro-economic environment. Whilst we continue to monitor events and work closely with all our suppliers and customers, we have not to date seen any material impact to our business from coronavirus.

“Our sustainable packaging offering including the replacement of plastics is becoming ever more important to our FMCG and e-commerce customers and we continue to gain market share.

“Despite continued uncertainty in the macro-economic environment, our focus on pricing discipline, enhanced cost and efficiency improvements, and cash generation, support our expectation of further good progress in the year“.