Home Depot posted a smaller-than-expected decline in quarterly same-store sales on Tuesday, as a switch to small-scale projects and repair work by customers cushioned a slowdown in demand for big-ticket items that has hammered the industry.

Shares of the company rose more than 2% in premarket trading.

"Similar to the second quarter, we saw continued customer engagement with smaller projects, and experienced pressure in certain big-ticket, discretionary categories," CEO Ted Decker said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the company tightened its annual sales forecast range to a decline between 3% and 4%, compared with its prior forecast for a 2% to 5% decline. Analysts on average estimate a 2.72% drop, according to LSEG IBES data.

Comparable sales at the largest U.S. home improvement retailer fell 3.1% in the third quarter, while analysts on average expected a 3.31% drop.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)