JD Sports has said that it has posted like-for-like sales growth across its retail portfolio despite “widely reported challenges” in the UK market.

The sports fashion retailer did not provide specific numbers for its Christmas trading performance, but said “against a backdrop of widely reported retail challenges in the group’s core UK market, it is encouraging to report positive like for like trends in the group’s global Sports Fashion fascias, particularly overseas.”

The retailer said that due to the “differentiated timing of the post-Christmas sales period in a number of our key overseas markets” its overall Christmas results would rely on trading for the remainder of January.

However, JD Sports reiterated that it expected full-year pre-tax profit to be in the upper range of current market expectations, which run from £403m to £433m.

The sports fashion retailer, which recorded a 6.6% increase in profit before tax to £129.9m at the half-year market in September, will post its preliminary results on April 15.