MILAN, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Italian clothing retailer Benetton (BNG.MI) reported a 60 percent decrease in first-half net profit on Wednesday 5 August as revenues were hit by the rescheduling of shipments. Benetton, known for its colourful sweaters, will recover the deferred sales in the third quarter, but there will be a reduction of about 3 percent in "cumulative results" for the first nine months of the year, Chief Executive Gerolamo Caccia Dominioni said in a statement.

Benetton womenswear

The company said spring/summer collection orders were up 1 percent on the previous year, while a reduction of 3 percent for orders for the fall/winter line was expected.

Benetton shares rose nearly 5 percent to 6.315 euros.

"The combination of the good level of orders taken for the new fall/winter collection and actions currently in progress on the cost front thus allow reasonable optimism for the end of 2009 in respect of sales, profit and net indebtedness," he said.

Benetton said net profit was 26 million euros ($37.42 million) versus 72 million euros a year ago.

First-half sales fell 11.4 percent to 882 million euros after the rescheduling of 88 million euros of shipments, net of which they were down 3 percent.

Benetton had said in May it had made changes to its commercial calendar, moving some of the fall/winter 2009 shipments from the second quarter to the third quarter, affecting second-quarter sales.

(Editing by Will Waterman)

($1=.6948 Euro)