JD Sports to revel in World Cup

RETAILER JD Sports Fashions is set to show that a sales boost from the football World Cup and its high-end fashion offering has allowed it to dodge the high street downturn.

The group, which trades as JD Sports, Chausport and Size, as well as upmarket fashion brands such as Bank and Scotts, has outpaced rivals such as Mike Ashley's Sports Direct and JJB Sports and analysts expect more of the same in Tuesday's interim results.

One analyst said: "I think we are going to see the pretty stellar trend from JD Sports continue, with the same sort of positive trends at Bank and Scotts, in particular.

"The firm's one minor negative is that the company is coming up against stronger comparatives because of a good performance. But it is very resilient to downturns.

"You are not talking about teenage tracksuit bottoms here, but the high fashion end of sports." The City is forecasting annual pre-tax profits at JD of about 72.5 million against 67.4m last time, with the total dividend set to rise to 21.6p from 18p.