H&M expects sales upturn

Budget fashion firm Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) generated a slightly bigger rise than expected in sales last month, offering some support to company guidance that results in the second half of the year were likely to be stronger than in the first.

Local currency sales at the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer after Zara owner Inditex rose 10% in the month, against a mean forecast for a 9% rise in a Reuters poll of analysts.

H&M’s shares rose 2.7% in early trading, trimming the year-to-date decline to less than 8%, before paring back slightly later in the day but remaining ahead by more than 2%.