Retailers received a much-needed boost this morning after new figures revealed that more shoppers hit the high street this weekend as investors geared up for an expected run of poor Christmas trading updates from British stores.

Latest footfall figures from Experian showed 2.7 per cent more people hit the shops on Friday, Saturday and Sunday compared to last year.

All the extra footfall was on Friday, January 2, when 14.4 per cent more shoppers visited retailers. In contrast, numbers fell sharply Saturday, down 3.9 per cent, and Sunday, a decline of 5.2 per cent.

The overall rise is likely to be down to the days on which Christmas and New Year fell this year, with many Britons taking an extra day holiday on the Friday, January 2, instead of returning to work.

The figures emerged ahead of what is widely expected to be a gloomy week for the retail sector, with Marks & Spencer (M&S) forecast to report one of its worst Christmas trading performances for a decade.

Sales at M&S are expected to fall between 5.5 per cent to 9.6 per cent over the past three months.

Debenhams and Next are also due to announce trading data this week. J Sainsbury will become the first of the big four UK supermarkets to update the market.

However, Liberty, the upmarket department store, this morning said that sales in the run up to Christmas had exceeded expectations, bucking the downbeat trend on the high street.

The Regent Street store said sales for the first 10 months of 2008 were ahead of comparative levels and that although November’s trading reflected the general retail slow down, sales in December were better than expected, almost matching last year’s record Christmas.

The store was boosted as it cleared stock in preparation for a major renovation this month, that will see two third of the building redesigned. Trading was also helped by a better than expected performance from its newly launched e-commerce business.

However, Liberty did caution that sales at its new stand-alone shop in Sloane Street, West London, had been slower than anticipated.

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