The fall in sales at Signet may have slowed in the third quarter, but the world’s biggest specialist jeweller said its trading outlook remained uncertain.

Total sales at the group, which operates mid-price Kay Jewelers and more upmarket Jared stores in the US, and H Samuel and Ernest Jones in the UK, were down 2.5 per cent to $613.6m in the three months to October. In the first 39 weeks of the company’s financial year, they fell by 6 per cent to $2.1bn (£1.3bn).