Further glimmers of recovery at Laura Ashley, the fashion and home products retailer with a chequered history but a still well-known brand, on Monday pushed the shares up 7 per cent to 23½p in morning trading.

It reported a rise in interim profits from £3m to £6.4m. However, the figure benefited from a £2.4m pension credit, and the underlying improvement was from £3m to £4m. The interim dividend is unchanged at 0.5p.