Sweden's H&M swings to deep loss as sales go down 50% due to Covid-19

Pretax loss was 6.5 billion crowns ($695 million) against a year-earlier profit of 5.9 billion. Analysts had on average forecast a 6.4 billion crown loss, according to Refinitiv data

Sweden's H&M, the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, saw the pandemic pummel it to a slightly deeper than expected loss in the second quarter and said it was ramping up store closures even as trade slowly emerged from lockdown hibernation.

H&M, which had warned in April it would swing into a loss in the three months through May, said it had increased price cuts, which squeezed the gross margin, and warned of a high level of markdowns also in the third quarter.

"Rapid adjustments to product purchasing and buying plans meant that the stock-in-trade was able to be reduced somewhat in