Kingfisher issued a warning on profits for the year, while Travis Perkins said like-for-like sales were down by 2.7 per cent over the past 17 weeks to April 23.
The effect has been losses on the prices of shares for a number of retailers in the home improvement and furnishings markets by lunchtime, with the sector as a whole dropping by 3.6 per cent.
Kingfisher itself lost 7.26 per cent on its share price. Floors 2 Go was the worst affected with a 9.17 per cent fall.
However, Numis analyst Iain McDonald sees the drop as a realization of retail realities, rather than investors losing confidence in the sector. He said: 'The big effect is definitely Kingfisher. The Travis Perkins statement was negative on retail. The sector was high on bid speculation and our view is that this is bringing share prices down to a more sensible level. There isn't really any re-evaluation of the sector. Things have been tough and they are still tough. I think there is a realisation that the venture capitalists aren't going to come and bail people out any more.'
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