Richemont delivered stunning holiday quarter performance with luxury jewelry sales up 14%, while Signet reported holiday accessible/mass-market jewelry sales down 2%.

Richemont sales unexpectedly jumped by a double-digit percentage during the holiday shopping season as consumers splurged on Cartier jewelry, lifting shares across the luxury-goods sector on hopes of a rebound.

Shares in European luxury companies rose after the Swiss luxury group reported sales that surpassed analysts’ projections, providing some relief at a time when the sector contends with sliding demand.

Richemont, the owner of Cartier jewellery, on Thursday fuelled hopes of a revival for the beaten down luxury goods industry, with end-of-year sales that exceeded expectations, sending shares higher across the sector.

Cartier-owner Richemont, whose brands also include Montblanc, raked in £5.2bn in the three months to December 31, its highest quarterly sales.

European luxury stocks surged after Richemont, the company behind Cartier, Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels, reported a "very solid end" to 2024, with quarterly sales surging to a record. Shares in Dior,

Richemont, the owner of Cartier jewellery, beat market expectations for third-quarter sales on Thursday, fuelling hopes that the luxury sector could be coming out of its recent downturn. The Swiss company's sales jumped 10% year-on-year to 6.

For the past couple of years, the luxury retail sector has been mired by a slowdown in sales and consumer and economic woes in China and beyond.