LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer soundlybeat forecasts for Christmas trading as it reported its firstquarterly rise in underlying clothing and homeware sales innearly two years, delivering a boost to new boss Steve Rowe.
Clothing & Home like-for-like sales rose 2.3 percent in the13 Weeks to 31 Dec, beating a market forecast of a rise of 0.2percent, while food was up 0.6 percent, also ahead of forecasts,it said on Thursday.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)