ZURICH (Reuters) -Sales at Cartier-owner Richemont were almost flat in the three months through June, the luxury group said on Tuesday, with a slump in Chinese demand pushing the overall result slightly below expectations.

Richemont shares were dragged down on Monday by broader woes in the sector, and the earnings figures were more robust than some market players had expected. The stock opened up on Tuesday, before erasing gains in early trading.

The negative Chinese impact on Richemont’s results in Asia was partly offset by a big jump in business in Japan.

The figures come amid a rocky start to the reporting season for European luxury goods companies.

This week, falling sales at Swiss watchmaker Swatch and a profit warning from Britain’s Burberry hammered the firms’ shares and German fashion house Hugo Boss cut its sales guidance for the year on weak demand, including in the Chinese market.

Richemont’s sales report “should be met with some relief after the unhelpful setting of the scene by (Swatch) some 24 hours ago,” analysts at Jefferies wrote.

Richemont said at constant exchange rates, sales rose 1% to 5.3 billion euros ($5.77 billion) – after surging 19% in the same period a year earlier – demonstrating some resilience in an “uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment”.

The figures compared to a consensus forecast of sales growth of 2% at constant rates assembled by Visible Alpha.

At current exchange rates, sales were down 1%.

“All regions delivered growth except for Asia Pacific where sales contracted by 18%, as higher sales in South Korea and Malaysia only partially mitigated a 27% decline in China, Hong Kong and Macau combined,” the company said.

The strongest regional sales growth was in Japan, an increase of 59%, where Chinese shoppers benefited from the weaker yen to snap up luxury products.

In Europe, sales increased by 5%, while in the Americas, a 10% sales increase reflected sustained domestic demand across all distribution channels, Richemont said.

($1 = 0.9184 euros)

(Writing by Dave Graham; Additional reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Thomas Seythal, Kirsten Donovan and Bernadette Baum)

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