Sports Direct remains confident of exceeding market expectations for its full year, although once again it has declined to reveal like-for-like figures to the City.

The retailer reported group sales for the 11 weeks from October 29 to January 13 were£280 million and group gross profit was£126 million.

Chief executive Dave Forsey said the retail trading environment would become increasingly difficult over the next six months. However, he insisted: “The resilience of our business gives us the confidence to repeat the guidance on full-year performance that we gave on December 19.”

Blue Oar Securities analyst Greg Lawless said the trading statement is “far from illuminating, given that we lack any year-on-year comparatives to form a judgement”.

“The positives are that at least there is no additional profit warning, but the lack of facts in this so-called trading statement will hardly help investor sentiment,” he said. “Mike Ashley has been busy elsewhere in his empire with the return of Kevin Keegan to Newcastle this week, but this is one of the least useful trading statements I have ever seen.”

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