M&S and Next fight back

By Mark Potter

LONDON (Reuters) - Updates from three of Britain's biggest clothing retailers should shed a little more light on whether consumers are starting to spend more freely ahead of the key Christmas trading period.

Mid-market players Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) and Next (NXT.L), which both report on Wednesday, have been hit particularly hard in the recession, but have recently shown signs of improvement, helped by tight cost and stock management.

Discount chain Primark, whose parent Associated British Foods (ABF.L) publishes full-year results on Tuesday, has in contrast been thriving in the downturn.

Hopes of a consumer recovery are high.

British retail stocks, excluding grocers, have surged about 60 percent this year. But evidence of a pick up in spending has so far been patchy.

While a GfK NOP survey showed on Friday that British consumer confidence rose in October to its highest level since January 2008, official retail sales data for September were flat for a second month running.

Recent updates from Philip Green's Arcadia clothing empire and department store groups Debenhams (DEB.L) and John Lewis JLP.UL suggest like-for-like sales have returned to growth in recent weeks against a steep drop in demand a year ago.

Yet all remained cautious.