Domino's Pizza said its like-for-like sales during the Christmas period increased 17.6% driven by growing internet sales.

The company is now confident that its full-year 2007 profits will be ahead of current City expectations. Reversing their recent downward trend, shares were up 4.8 pence, or 2.7%, to 179.8p.

E-commerce sales in the UK and Ireland more than doubled, going up 102% in the six weeks to 30 December 2007.

In the corresponding year-ago period, like-for-like sales had increased 13.1% with e-commerce sales going up by 43.1%.

Domino's like-for-like sales in the 52 weeks to 30 December increased by 14.7%, up from 9.7% last year. Total online sales for the 52 weeks were £32.2 million, up 60.5% from last year.