JB Hi-Fi and Myer have emerged as the strongest performers of the Christmas trading period, which was proved to be an otherwise difficult time for Australian retailers, according to Citi analysts.

Drawing on testimony from suppliers and industry contacts, Citi said that retailers are “lukewarm about Christmas trading”, but that “there is no alarm about weak sales trends”.

The analysts have put the lacklustre growth down to a strong Christmas period in 2015, which raised the growth bar high, a less eventful product cycle with less pronounced must-have items and shopping events, like Black Friday moving spending to November.

Standout performers included JB Hi-Fi, who told The Australian earlier this week that they traded $1 million at their Chadstone outlet on Boxing Day despite aggressive discounting from Harvey Norman; and Myer who Citi said did well with their Giftorium activation – outpacing their rival David Jones.

The Citi team singled out Coles as a weak performer, saying that they “found it difficult to lap a very successful Christmas from last year when its execution was far superior to competitors”. They predict that comparable store sales could be as low as 0.5 per cent.

Poor performance in women’s apparel and footwear prompted the Citi team to assign downside EPS risk for Oroton and Specialty Fashion Group, who they said are suffering from higher discounting and lower sales.