Sainsbury’s has announced a 1.1% decline in like-for-like second quarter sales (excluding fuel) but has raised its full year profit expectations.

The multiple said volume and transactions grew in the 16 weeks to 26 September 2015, as the decline in average basket spend in supermarkets continued to stabilise.

It also continued its convenience store expansion, with 27 new Sainsbury’s Local stores opened in the quarter, compared to just one new supermarket.

Chief executive Mike Coupe said: “Whilst the market is clearly still challenging, with food deflation impacting many categories, we are making good progress on delivering our strategy.

“Year-to-date we have traded well, with both sales and cost savings ahead of expectations. Should current market trends continue, we expect our full year underlying profit before tax to be moderately ahead of our published consensus.”