N Brown says confident of full-year outlook

(Reuters) - British plus-size fashion retailer N Brown Group Plc said second-half trading had started well and that it was confident of its full-year outlook.

Shares in N Brown, whose brands include Simply Be and Jacamo, jumped 7 percent and were among the top percentage gainers on the FTSE-250 midcap index.

The Manchester, northern England-based company said trading in September was "pleasing", helped by the cooler weather this year and that its new Autumn Winter campaigns were well received by customers.

N Brown, which targets older and larger shoppers mainly through its online and catalogue stores, said online penetration of new customers for its largest brand JD Williams rose 21 percentage points to 74 percent in the first-half.

Online sales now represent 63 percent of N Brown's sales compared with 58 percent last year.

Analyst Mike Dennis of Cantor Fitzgerald called this update "encouraging", while keeping the stock's target price of 320 pence under review.

N Brown said underlying trading pretax profit fell 15.9 percent to 35 million pounds, in line with expectations.

Revenue, however, rose 4.2 percent to 415.8 million pounds for the 26 weeks ended Aug. 29, the company said.

N Brown shares were up 6.8 percent at 337.5 pence at 0800 GMT. The stock had lost about 17 percent of its value since the beginning of the year.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)