JD Sports Fashion has a spring in its step after reporting a five per cent rise in like-for like sales, reports The Times.

Shares in the sportswear retailer, which has stores in Gloucester and Cheltenham, rose by 6.6 per cent following the update. It covered the first 14 weeks of the new financial year to May 7.

The group said profit was expected to be £940million for the year to January 29, before tax and exceptional items.

JD Sports said in a statement:  "This performance is a positive reflection of both the strength and breadth of the group's brand relationships and category offer.

"It has also been achieved against a backdrop of a global shortfall in the supply of certain key footwear styles which we expect to improve progressively through the year."

Founded in 1981, the company has 853 stores globally. It stopped trading in Russian on March 4.

It said the figures were inline with expectations but it remained conscious of "headwinds" including the "general global macro-economic and geopolitical situation."