Clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT) defied recent high street gloom with its latest quarterly results, with online sales driving a strong performance.

‘Full price’ sales grew by 4.5 percent in the first half, with a 12.5 percent boost to online sales offsetting continued weakness on the high street.

Next entered sale a week earlier than the same period last year, but markdown sales combined with full-price sales growth of 4.5 percent led to a total sales growth of 3.9 percent on-year.

“Full-price sales in the second quarter were up 2.8 percent on last year and ahead of our guidance. We believe that this over‐achievement in sales was due to the prolonged period of exceptionally warm weather, which greatly assisted the sales of summer weight product.

“It is almost certain that some of these sales have been pulled forward from August, so we are maintaining our sales and profit guidance for the year to January 2019.”

Next shares are currently trading down despite the relatively positive set of results, down 5.63 percent at 5,602.00 (0919GMT).