Trading at JD Sports gets Euro 2016 boost

LONDON, June 17(Reuters) - An encouraging showing by so far by England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) at the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in France has boosted trade at British sportswear firm JD Sports Fashion (LSE: JD.L - news) .

JD Sports has been one of the British retail sector's star performers in recent years and has overtaken rival Sports Direct as the country's biggest sportswear retailer by market value.

Its shares have risen 86 percent over the last year.

"We have, in recent weeks, seen a further boost to sales from the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament. Consequently, we are well positioned to deliver an excellent first half-year result," said Executive Chairman Peter Cowgill ahead of the firm's annual shareholders' meeting on Friday.

"We face strong comparatives for the remainder of the year but our strong start will help facilitate delivery of current market expectations."

Prior to Friday's update analysts on average were forecasting a 2016-17 pretax profit of 161 million pounds ($230 million), Reuters data showed, up from a record 157 million pounds in 2015-16.

The stock was up 1.1 percent at 1,238 pence at 0808 GMT, valuing the business at 2.4 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7006 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Jason Neely)