Shares of Bury-based JD Sports Fashion soared to new highs after it said its profit before tax increased 81% to £238.4 million on revenue up 31% to £2.38 billion for the 52 weeks ended January 28, 2017.

JD Sports shares jumped more than 8% to around 441p to give it a stock market value of around £4.3 billion.

“Blacks and Millets delivered a positive result for the first time and the acquisition of the market leading Go Outdoors business will further develop our overall outdoors proposition,” said JD Sports.

JD Sports executive chairman Peter Cowgill said: “The foundation of this success remains our core Sports Fashion fascias where JD’s continued strength in its core markets is increasingly being complemented by momentum in our international development, with a net increase of 54 JD stores across mainland Europe during the year …

“Whilst we must recognise that there are external influences which may impact the latter part of the year, notably inflationary pressures arising from Brexit, the board remains confident in the robustness of the JD proposition and believes that the group is well positioned for further profitable growth.”