Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) posted a profit fall for the March-May period roughly in line with forecasts, and said sales in June 1 to 21 were up seven per cent in local currencies.

Dented by currency translation effects and markdowns, pretax profit in H&M’s fiscal second quarter fell to 7.00 billion crowns from a year-earlier 8.44 billion, against a mean forecast of 6.97 billion.