It's been a great start to the trading week this Monday for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and many ASX shares by extension. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has added a healthy 0.42%, pulling the index back up over 7,800 points. But that's nothing to what some ASX retail stocks are doing.
Take the Premier Investment Limited (ASX: PMV) share price. This ASX retail stock, which owns the Smiggle and Peter Alexander brands, is currently enjoying a 1.84% lift to $31.01 a share after closing at $30.45 last week.
Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) is performing similarly. Its stock has bounced 1.83% up to $9.47.
Discount jewellery retailer Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV) is doing even better. Lovisa shares are presently up by 2.16% at $33.53.
ASX retail stock and furniture purveyor Nick Scali Limited (ASX: NCK) is even more impressive, with its shares up 2.76% to $15.25 so far this Monday.
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX: HVN) shares are really in fine form though. Harvey Norman closed at $4.57 last week. But today, the homewares, appliances and electronics retailer is up a robust 4.16% at $4.76.
But taking the ASX retail stock cake is none other than JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX: JBH). JB Hi-Fi stock has soared up a whopping 7.9% at the time of writing to $72.72 a share. That's after the company hit a new record high of $74.66 earlier in the session.
So, what on earth is going on here with ASX retail stocks? Why is this corner of the market blowing out?
Why are retail stocks blowing the ASX 200 out of the water today?
Well, it seems we have the star of the ASX retail sector show itself today to thank for the goodwill we are seeing.
This morning, JB Hi-Fi reported its latest full-year earnings to the markets, covering the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
As we covered at the time, these earnings were something of a mixed bag on the surface. Total sales were down 0.4% to $9.59 billion, while net profit after tax (NPAT) fell by an even more dramatic 16.4% to $438.8 million.
As a result, JB declared an ordinary final dividend of $1.03 per share (fully franked), a drop from last year's equivalent payout of $1.15.
However, there were some surprise goodies in the bag for investors.
JB also revealed that it would pay its shareholders a special dividend worth an additional 80 cents per share.
On top of that, the ASX retail stock announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire kitchen, laundry and bathroom retailer E. & S. Trading Co. (e&s). JB will initially front up $47.8 million for 75% of the business and will endeavour to acquire the last quarter by September 2029.
JB Hi-Fi concluded by telling investors that July sales progressed as planned, with 5.6% comparable sales growth over the same month last year.
My Fool colleague James posited that JB's smashing share price performance today might have been due to these numbers exceeding analysts' expectations.
However, it appears that investors are assuming that JB's success over FY2024 also bodes well for other ASX retail stocks mentioned above like Harvey Norman and Nick Scali. Hence, today's share price performances. But we'll have to wait until we see those companies' numbers to find out for sure.
