AnnTaylor February sales fall 1.7 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AnnTaylor Stores Corp (ANN.N) said on Thursday sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.7 percent in February, hurt by continuing weak mall traffic as cash-strapped consumers do less discretionary shopping.

But trends improved from January, the retailer said, causing the decline to be smaller than the 3.2 percent drop analysts on average were expecting, according to Reuters Estimates.

The operator of the Ann Taylor and LOFT chains said net sales for the four weeks ended March 1 rose 3.9 percent to $141.4 million.

The company said same-store sales fell 8.7 percent at its namesake Ann Taylor chain due to deep promotions necessary to sell its "less-compelling January and February store sets."

At the LOFT chain, same-store sales rose 2.8 percent as "well-received product assortments and very strong in-store metrics more than offset the impact of the weak traffic environment," according to AnnTaylor Chief Executive Kay Krill.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Mark Porter and John Wallace)