ASDA continued to defy a gloomy consumer environment posting a sales increase of more than 6 per cent for the first quarter of the year.

The supermarket group, which is owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, outperformed the market for the eighth consecutive quarter with market share up 0.3 per cent year-on-year in the 12 weeks to April 20.

The strong figures come against worse-than-expected national data from the British Retail Consortium which showed like-for-like retail sales fell by 1.5 per cent in April for the second consecutive month.

Wal-Mart said like-for-like sales rose by 6.4 per cent, excluding petrol and stripping out an early Easter. Sales in fresh food and its premium brand, Extra Special, rose strongly.

Mike Duke, international vice chairman at Wal-Mart, said: "Although we expect the UK to remain a challenging economy and retail market over the rest of the year, we believe that our strong pricing agenda, backed by a cost reduction programme leaves us well positioned to continue to make market share there."

Andy Bond, president and chief executive at Asda, said: "While today’s results are encouraging, we mustn't become complacent - especially in the current economic climate. We have a duty to lock down inflation by working with our suppliers, to cut costs to ensure that our customers are always getting the best possible deal on their weekly shopping."

Wal-Mart's outlook for the US economy was less optimistic. The group warned that its US earnings for the second quarter may come in below Wall Street's expectations, as consumers cope with falling house prices and rising fuel prices.

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