Marks & Spencer Q1 sales fall less than expected

"Consumer confidence appears to be stabilising. However, we remain cautious about the outlook for the remainder of this and next year and will continue to run the business accordingly," Rose said on Wednesday. Britain's retailers are battling the deepest recession in decades. Industry sales are falling and a raft of the companies in the sector have posted slumps in annual profit.

M&S said sales at UK stores open over a year fell 1.4 percent in the 13 weeks to June 27, after a fourth-quarter drop of 4.2 percent. That was the seventh quarterly fall in sales in a row, but also the best performance since the second quarter of its 2007-08 financial year. Analysts had forecast a fall of 1.8-3.5 percent, according to a company poll of ten.

The improvement is unlikely to relieve the pressure on Rose, under fire from investors for combining the roles of chairman and chief executive last year against corporate governance guidelines. He survived an investor rebellion last July, but faces fresh calls to share power at a July 8 AGM.

"They're (the Q1 numbers) better than expected. But the weather's been good, the comps (comparative figures from last year) softer and they've been cutting prices. So it's difficult to give them too much credit," said Pali International analyst Nick Bubb, who has a "sell" rating on the shares.

Like-for-like general merchandise sales, spanning clothing and homewares, were down 2.4 percent, against a forecast drop of 3-5 percent. Food sales on the same basis were down 0.5 percent versus an expected decline of 0.5-4.2 percent.