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(Adds CEO comments, shares)
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Britain's Home Retail Group Plc said summer sunshine had delivered a big boost to salesat its home improvements chain Homebase in the second quarterand helped shift seasonal products at its biggest businessArgos.
Shares in Home Retail, which have risen 29 percent since thestart of the year, hit to a two-year high of 178 pence and weretrading up 3.2 percent at 169 pence by 0819 GMT, topping theFTSE mid-cap index.
Like-for-like sales at Homebase rose by 11 percent in the 13weeks to Aug. 31, it said, comfortably beating analystexpectations of 3.3 percent, while sales at Argos on the samemeasure were up 2.7 percent, beating forecasts of 2.0 percent.
Chief Executive Terry Duddy, who recently said he would quitby next July, said Homebase had had a "fantastic summer" withthe highest like-for-like sales growth in at least a decade.
Sales of garden furniture at Homebase rose by 60 percent and barbecues were up 56 percent, he told reporters on Thursday.
Seasonal goods such as paddling pools were also in demand atArgos, helping offset declines in furniture and homeware.
"We sold more desk fans in two weeks than in the whole of2012," Duddy said.
The strong summer performance meant the group was moreconfident in saying it would meet analysts' profit expectationsfor the full year, he said, but the outcome still depended onthe important Christmas trading performance at Argos.
Analysts on average expect yearly pretax profit of 98.6million pounds ($155.9 million), according to Thomson Reutersdata.
"Whilst we do not believe that our customers are betteroff, there was clearly a feel-good factor in the summer whenthey were spending on outdoor leisure products," he said.
The comments contrast with remarks from Kingfisher,Europe's biggest home improvements retailer, which reported aslight dip in profit on Wednesday and said it was too early tocall an economic recovery in Britain. ($1 = 0.6324 British pounds) (Editing by Sarah Young and David Holmes)
