Next (LON:NXT) has raised its profits guidance after July‘s warm weather sparked a sales rush.
Expectations for full year are now between £805mln to £845mln compared to £785mln to £835mln previously.
Revenues in the 26 weeks to 25 July rose by 3.3% including markdowns, ahead of previous guidance, with good performance attributed largely to the better weather last month.
Because of the first half improvement, the clothing retailer now expects sales to grow by between 3.5% and 6% over the full year.
Previous sales guidance had been growth in a range of 1.5% to 5.5%. The second half forecast is unchanged.
In the first half, full price sales rose 3.5%, of which 1.7% came from new space. Retail sales rose by 0.8% and online by 7.5%.
Total stock for the end-of-season sale was up 4.8% on last year.
The clothing retailer also announced it will pay another special dividend of 60p per share on 2 November as its shares had remained above its buyback threshold of £68.27.