John Lewis, the high street bellwether, provided a fillip to the retail sector today after reporting a 2.4 per cent rise in sales over the Christmas trading period.

The department store operator reported strong gains in demand for homeware, electricals and technology while sales in fashion and beauty also rose over the five weeks to January 3. Today’s figures contrast sharply in the run up to the crucial Christmas season when John Lewis reported double-digit falls in trading.

Earlier today, Liberty, the upmarket retailer, said sales in the run up to Christmas had exceeded expectations, bucking the downbeat trend on the high street.

The Regent Street store said trading 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.

Footfall on the high street also increased over the weekend after new figures revealed that more shoppers hit the shops. 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.

Today's positive data has emerged ahead of an expected run of poor trading updates from the UK retail sector, led by Marks & Spencer which is expected to report a fall in sales 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.

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