With the fourth-quarter sales at the US outlets of Royal Ahold NV - the Dutch proprietor of Stop & Shop supermarkets and Giant grocery chains - beating the estimates by the analysts, the retailer gained the most in Amsterdam in two months.

Ahold shares, which rose a whopping 71 cents to euro9.23 in Amsterdam, and traded at euro9.09 at 9:39 a. m. local time, have fetched the company a market value of nearly euro10.8 billion.

Upholded by a stronger dollar, the company, in a trading update on Friday, reported a 13 percent growth in its fourth quarter, with the companywide sales of euro6.60 billion - $8.64 billion - being up from the sales of euro5.84 billion in the same period a year back.

The same-store sales in local currency or "identical sales," increased 5.2 percent at Ahold's main Albert Heijn grocery chain in Europe; 4.6 percent at Giant; and 2.3 percent at Stop & Shop.

The retailer said that while in Europe the growth in sales was 10 percent to euro2.67 billion; in the US, it reported a 15 percent growth to euro3.92 billion. The earnings will be officially reported on March 2, as the figures are yet to be audited.

Commenting on US sales, Fernand de Boer - an analyst at Petercam SA with a "buy" rating on Ahold - said: "U. S. sales growth will probably be strong for at least another two quarters and margins will be boosted by more savings."