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LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Next, Britain'ssecond-largest clothing retailer, posted first-quarter salesslightly ahead of its own guidance on Wednesday, benefiting fromthe earlier launch of a summer catalogue and warmer weather.
Shares in the firm were up 3.1 percent at 1037 GMT, thesecond-biggest rise on Britain's FTSE 100 index of blue-chipcompanies, after it also maintained its annual sales and profitforecasts and said it would pay another special dividend of 90million pounds ($138 million).
Shares in bigger rival Marks & Spencer were up 1.9percent.
Next has outperformed peers for a decade due to a strongonline offer, new store openings and diversification into newproduct areas, such as homewares, as well as overseas.
The firm, which trades from over 500 stores in Britain andIreland and almost 200 overseas as well as the Directorycatalogue and internet business, said full price sales rose 3.2percent in the 13 weeks to April 25, ahead of guidance for thefirst half of flat to up 3 percent.
It said the outcome was flattered about 0.6 percentagepoints by the earlier launch of its "New-In" brochure, whichhelpfully coincided with much better weather.
Next's full-price retail sales were up 0.5 percent, whileDirectory sales were up 7.0 percent.
"Given the fashion range problems this spring and worriesabout slowing Directory sales growth, the City will be pleasedto see Directory sales looking strong," said independent retailanalyst Nick Bubb.
Next's total sales rose 4.1 percent, reflecting a biggerwinter end-of-season sale and a larger mid-season sale inDirectory.
Last month Next cut its sales guidance for the year to theend of January 2016, highlighting weaker collections and toughcomparative numbers in the spring and summer.
That guidance was maintained on Wednesday -- total fullprice sales of 1.5-5.5 percent. Pretax profit is forecast at785-835 million pounds ($1.20-$1.28 billion), growth of 0.4-6.7percent.
Shares in the firm are up 10 percent so far this year and inthe first quarter remained above its buyback price limit of68.27 pounds.
This meant Next did not use surplus cash to retire anyshares in the period and will therefore pay a further specialdividend of 60 pence per share on Aug. 3.
($1 = 0.6514 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton and MarkPotter)