Bebe sport's line

Jan 6 - Women's apparel retailer Bebe Stores Inc scaled back its earnings estimate for the second quarter, hurt in part by weak demand in the second half of December, which is the high point of the holiday selling season.

Bebe, which caters to body conscious 21-to-34-year olds, said it expects Q2 earnings from continuing operations to be at the low-end of its previous estimate of 2-6 cents a share.

Analysts on an average were expecting the company to post a profit of 4 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Same store sales for the second quarter were flat -- much better than the negative 22.5 percent last year, the company said.

But while sales for the month of October and November were positive, the last two weeks of December were below estimates, making the retailer discount heavily and hurting margins.

Shares of the Brisbane, California-based company closed at $5.91 on Wednesday on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)