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any investors see scant difference between Grafton and Travis Perkins, but they should. Shares in both FTSE 250 groups trade at near-identical forward earnings multiples. And it’s true to say their pressures are the same: rising borrowing costs and a subsequent slide in the housing market and spending on improvements have led to a dramatic comedown for building materials suppliers. But compared with its beleaguered peer, maintaining a holding in Grafton looks less futile.
Like-for-like sales over the second quarter edged back into positive territory, up 0.8 per cent against a 0.7 per cent decline in the first three months of the year. Granted, that’s a meagre gain and, given the rates of prices inflation, it means sales volumes were solidly negative. Yet it is
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