French personal care products group L’Oreal SA has reported a 12.4% rise in second-quarter sales, lifted by double-digit growth at its four product divisions, which the company said confirmed the recovery in luxury products markets, and helped by foreign exchange gains.

It gave few leads about expectations for the full year but said it is confident in its ability to tackle the second half and that its “strong first half sales growth reflects a return to a good like-for-like sales trend… which might increase in the course of this year.”

L’Oreal, the maker of Lancome lipstick and Garnier shampoo, among others, said sales in the second quarter rose to EUR4.95 billion from EUR4.40 billion in the same period a year ago. That total was pretty much in line with analyst expectations. Second-quarter sales growth was steeper than the 8% rise in the first quarter.

Worldwide, second-quarter sales were up a more modest 5.2% like-for-like, which strips out the effect of acquisitions, disposals and currency swings. That was less than the 5.6% to 6.4% rise expected by three analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

It noted a good performance in North America and said it made breakthroughs in new markets, especially India, China and Brazil, but European sales remained sluggish, with just a 1.1% second-quarter like-for-like rise.

For the first half of 2010, the company posted EUR9.67 billion of sales, up 10.2% from the opening six months of last year, and up 6.3% like-for-like.

“The strong first-half sales growth reflects a return to a good like-for-like sales trend, and a very positive exchange rate impact, which might increase in the course of this year… These results bear out our major strategic choices and mean that we can tackle the second half with confidence,” said Jean-Paul Agon, chief executive officer of L’Oreal.

The company was hard hit in 2009 by the drop in consumption in developed countries as the economic slowdown curbed spending on beauty products and cut down on visits to beauty salons.

L ‘Oreal shares have gained around 6% since January, while the Paris CAC-40 index shed 9%. L’Oreal shares closed Monday at EU82.09 a share, down EUR0.71, or 0.9%, from Friday.