The World Cup kept shoppers at home on days when England played, but nevertheless boosted sales of beer, large TVs, sportswear and food during June.

The British Retail Consortium said hot weather also helped sales of food, DIY goods and gardening products - although non-sports clothing and footwear dropped back after a modest improvement in May.

All in all, last month's like-for line retail sales were 2.3 per cent ahead of June last year, itself a poor month for shop-keepers when sales dropped by 0.5 per cent.

Over the three months to June, year-on-year sales growth rose to 4.1 per cent last month on a like-for-like basis from 2.7 per cent in May. But taking into account new shopping space opened over the year, these increases rise to 6.8 per cent and 5.6 per cent.

"Despite the boost from the World Cup, warmer weather and some early clearance sales, June was not as good as May," the BRC's director general, Kevin Hawkins, pointed out.

"Although the gain is indeed encouraging, much of the growth, especially in housingrelated sectors, remains discount-driven. Consumer confidence is still fragile and retailers will be hoping factors beyond their control do not weaken it further."

Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG, was equally cautious.

"Our ability to enjoy the 'festival of football' has offset any downside arising from lower customer traffic in key centres during the high-interest matches.

"The level of promotional activity in non-food continues to outpace last year and hence the impact on margins will be felt widely across the sector as the year progresses.

"In the immediate future, though, after a month which will have polarised retailers' fortunes like no other, it's a case of retailers needing to get back to business as usual."

But Steve Line, a partner at Grant Thornton in Birmingham, pointed to evidence that quoted retail companies are starting to recover as they deliver their most upbeat trading performances since the third quarter of 2004.

Grant Thornton's Quoted Retail Companies Index revealed that, during the second quarter of this year, 40 per cent of retailers issued positive trading updates and 44 per cent neutral ones, while the remainder were uniformly negative.

This compares favourably with the same months last year when just 29 per cent of the updates were positive, with 51 per cent neutral and 20 per cent negative.

"Though still in a fragile state, there are clear signs that the retail sector is beginning to recover and is entering calmer waters," Mr Line said.

"While the recovery is not uniform across all sectors, retailers appear to have stepped up a gear with regards to improving their performances, although the DIY sector and some fashion retailers continue to struggle."

He believes the pegging of interest rates over the past year and the pick-up in house prices in parts of the country have paved the way towards the more upbeat performance of quoted retailers.