Topps Tiles has reported strong sales for the 13-week period ended 1 January.

Sales were up 21% over the period for a two year period.

“We have made an encouraging start to the new financial year, with strong customer demand during the first quarter and like-for-like sales growth on both a two year and one year basis against tough comparatives,” said CEO Rob Parker.

“Global supply chain challenges, higher staff absence due to Covid-19 and material cost price inflation continue to provide significant headwinds, however we are managing these challenges effectively.  I am confident that our successful strategy and strong balance sheet leave us well-positioned to deliver sustainable long term growth and our 20% market share goal of ‘1 in 5 by 2025’.”

The group has made many precautions in the last quarter to mitigate against higher shipping costs and inflation.

DFS has reported strong results as sales were up 10% compared to the same period in 2019.

Sales remain 2% lower than in 2020, where there was a surge in people carrying out home improvements over the lockdown.

Chief executive Tim Stacey said: “While the market remains hard to predict, we believe our scale, brand strength and integrated retail strategy will allow us to drive market share gains ahead of the competition.”

“Looking ahead we will continue to invest in our digital platforms and our showrooms, our delivery network, our UK manufacturing capacity, and with expansion into other home categories, we are well positioned to succeed.”

Shares in the group jumped 3% in morning trading.

After a strong Christmas period, Sainsbury’s will be raising profit forecast for the year to April.

Strong grocery sales from people staying at home meant the group is now expecting pre-tax profits of at least £720m in the year to March 2022.

“We were bold in our plan for product, value, innovation and service and delivered volume growth ahead of the market. We delivered our best value food this Christmas, launched our lowest ever priced Christmas dinner heading into the key Christmas shopping week and we had our biggest ever New Year,” said chief executive Simon Roberts.

“Customers also treated themselves and new Taste the Difference products in party food, desserts, wines and spirits were really popular and we had record sales of champagne and sparkling wines. Offering great value will be more important than ever this year and we have just launched our bold new Sainsbury’s Quality Aldi Price Match campaign, which targets 150 fresh products that customers buy most often.”

Zoe Gillespie, investment manager at Brewin Dolphin, commented: “UK supermarkets faced tough comparisons against Christmas 2020, when lockdown caused a boom in food and drink sales, but the spread of the Omicron variant saw consumers stay away from bars and restaurants last year as well. Sainsbury’s is continuing to deliver strong results on the back of the range of measures it took to improve business performance.”

“Encouragingly, profit guidance has been lifted, cost savings are helping to stave off the effects of increased inflation, and debt reduction is ahead of schedule. Even the supermarket’s banking operation is seeing a turnaround in fortunes. Sainsbury’s is in a good position and that is being reflected in its increased market share and a share price that is up more than 50% since the very beginning of the pandemic – although, it is still off recent peaks.”

Following the report, shares in the group jumped 2% and analysts pointed to the increase in their market share as reason to be optimistic.

“Sainsbury’s is the latest supermarket directly trying to take on the discounters, with massive investment in reducing prices helping the supermarket up its market share,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Darktrace shares jumped 20% after the group raised its full-year outlook for revenue and earnings margin.

Thanks to a growth in customers by almost 40%, the group now expects year-over-year revenue growth of between 42% and 44% – which is an increase of 5%.

“I am very pleased that we have continued to deliver strong growth across our customer base, ARR and revenue in 1H FY 2022,” said Cathy Graham, the group’s chief finance officer.

“We also achieved our aim of driving improvement in churn and net ARR retention rates over the past six months by leveraging our customer success team and focusing on upsell programmes,” she added.

The group expects revenues for the year to hit 190m (£140m).

Recruitment firm Robert Walters has reported a boost in activity as firms are hiring more staff.

The group reported a record December fee income was up by 33% in the last quarter of the year.

“We are seeing candidate shortages across all locations and disciplines, a fierce competition for talent and wage inflation kicking in which together create huge opportunities across the recruitment market,” said chief executive Robert Walters.

Over the year as a whole, the net income fee was up 21%.

Robert Walters noted strong growth in Asia Pacific as it reported a 56% rise in net fee income.