Sainsbury's has raised its profits forecast despite reporting a 12th consecutive fall in quarterly sales.
The supermarket's shares rose 12% after the announcement.
Sainsbury's now expects to report full-year profits of £548 million, which is just ahead of analysts' expectations but still considerably below last year's results of £681m.
Like-for-like sales fell 1.1% during the last quarter, with total sales up 0.3%. Sainsbury's said it was pleased with its progress despite "food inflation impacting many categories".
Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe said: "Both volume and transactions grew as the decline in average basket spend in supermarkets continued to stabilise.
"Whilst the market is clearly still challenging, with food deflation impacting many categories, we are making good progress on delivering our strategy."
The supermarket has turned towards having lower regular prices, and reducing the amount of special offers it gives.
