Catalogue retailer N Brown (LON:BWNG) sent the short-sellers scattering with a solid half-year update and held dividend.
Sales at the Simply Be and Jacamo owner rose 1% to £429mln while adjusted profits before tax were £31.6mln (£39.4mln).
House broker Shore Capital said the rise in product sales was encouraging, with the second quarter seeing a 2.7% rise with market share gains in menswear offsetting a flat period for ladieswear.
Simply Be and Jacamo are part of N Brown’s power brand stable, which saw a 14.7% rise ignoring Fifty Plus and driven by the move to online from catalogues.
Simply Be sales rose 6.2% to £53.3mln as more customers compensated for lower customer spend, while Jacamo sales increased by 3.3% to £31.4mln.
The JD Williams range was the best performer with an 11% underlying improvement.
Angela Spindler, chief executive, said: "Our Power Brands continue to outperform the wider business, and I am particularly encouraged by the 11% revenue growth of the JD Williams brand.
“Our digital KPIs remain very strong, with 68% online penetration and 7.5% growth in online revenues.”
“At this stage we are comfortable with current market expectations for the full year,” he added.
Shore Capital left its full year forecasts unchanged at profits of £80.2mlm (consensus £80.5mln)
Shares rocketed 17% to 206.4p.