Luxury fashion label Mulberry saw shares shoot up 82p in early trading, after it reported a 'strong' Christmas sales performance.

The group's share price was up 5.5 per cent to £15.60 at 10.20am.

Mulberry, whose bestselling products include the Alexa bag named after television presenter Alexa Chung, announced a 41 per cent increase in sales for the six weeks to 14 January 2012.

Sales for the ten weeks to 3 December were also encouraging, up 18 per cent on the same period last year.

Somerset-based Mulberry has opened 11 new outlets since March, including a flagship store in New York.

Asia is a key market for the group, with new stores also planned for Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei and five in South Korea, bringing the total number of outlets to 92 - more than half of which are overseas.

Godfrey Davis, chairman and chief executive of Mulberry, said he anticipated full-year results to 31 March 2012 to now 'exceed our earlier expectations'.

Mulberry also revealed that wholesale orders for spring/summer 2012 are currently 35 per cent up compared with the same period in 2010, despite two months of the selling season still remaining.