Spanish owner of Zara clothing store chain sees profit rise 26 percent for first half of 2015

The Spanish owner of the Zara clothing store chain says profit for the first half of 2015 rose 26 percent, boosted by growth in all markets around the world where the company sells clothes.

Inditex Group said in a statement Wednesday that profit for the January-June period was 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

Revenue for the period was 9.4 billion euros ($10.6 billion), up 17 percent compared with the same six months last year.

Inditex says it opened new stores in 35 markets during the first six months of the year, lifting its total store count to 6,777 in 85 markets.

The company says more than 10,000 jobs were added and about a quarter of them were in Spain.

Inditex shares were up 3.1 percent Wednesday morning in Madrid.