British American Tobacco sales rise

LONDON (Reuters) - British American Tobacco reported higher half-year sales on a year-on-year basis on Thursday, helped by volume increases. The world's No. 2 international tobacco company, with brands that include Lucky Strike and Pall Mall, said sales rose 6 percent in the half year to 30 June, excluding currency fluctuations, acquisitions and divestitures. The increase was also driven by higher pricing. Basic earnings per share were 1 percent higher at 143.8 pence. "With profit growth weighted to the second half of the year, we remain confident that we will deliver another year of good earnings growth at constant rates of exchange," BAT Chairman Richard Burrows said in a statement. (This article has been corrected to clarify in the first paragraph that sales comparison was year on year) (Reporting by Martinne Geller in London; editing by John Stonestreet)