Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, today posted forecast-beating sales in December.
Today's figures extended what has been a strong run for the Swedish company into a new fiscal year.
December was the ninth consecutive month that H&M, which is benefiting from a recovering US economy, reached sales clearly or slightly above analysts' expectations in Reuters polls.
The company, which lags Zara owner Inditex in annual sales, said today its sales rose 15% year on year in December, above a 13% increase expected by analysts.
December is the first month of the company's fiscal first quarter. It will unveil detailed earnings for 2013/2014 on January 28.
