Shares in Zara owner Inditex, the world's largest fashion retailer, soared on Wednesday as a positive start to the autumn season enthused investors and eclipsed slower-than-expected sales growth.

The Spanish firm reported that profit crept up 0.8 percent to 2.8 billion euros in the six months between February and July, with sales growing 1.6 percent to reach 18.4 billion euros ($21.5 billion).

The results fell slightly short of analyst expectations for the clothing giant, whose brands also include Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho.

Inditex, however, said its autumn/winter collections "have been very well received by our customers", with a nine-percent increase in store and online sales in constant currency between August 1 and September 7.

Inditex shares wer

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