Sector movers: Sainsbury lifts food retailers
The food retailing sector is on the up, expressing relief at a respectable Christmas update from Sainsbury.
J Sainsbury saw like-for-like sales in the third quarter rise 3.7% despite the competitive environment and said the business was well equipped to deliver in the challenging market.
The group posted like-for-like sales growth of 3.7%, excluding fuel, for the third quarter, which it said was a good result for the Christmas quarter given the level of competition in the period.
Including fuel, like-for-like sales rose 5.1%, while total sales for the quarter increased 5.9% and 4.7% excluding fuel.
It said it has achieved its goal of £2.5bn of additional sales since March 2003.
Yesterday Morrison's received a boost from figures released by market research group TNS Worldpanel which indicated that William Morrison was the big winner among supermarkets in the fourth quarter, as it grew its market share by 4 basis points.
Britain's fourth largest supermarket chain saw its market share rise to 11.4% in the 12 weeks to 30 December 2007 from 11% in the comparable period of 2006.
The market share for sector leader Tesco edged up to 31.5% from 31.4%, while number 2 in the sector, Asda, saw its share rise to 16.7% from 16.6% after what it described today as its "best Christmas ever".
Beverages stocks are down, despite Scottish & Newcastle rising on news that the Carlsberg/Heineken consortium has raised its indicative bid terms to 780p per share.
The UK's biggest brewer rejected the new offer on the grounds that it still "failed to reflect the unique strengths and market positions of the company and again failed to be competitive with the alternatives the company can pursue for delivering value to its shareholders."
"The board has discussed with the consortium that it is prepared to engage with them, but only when a firm proposal of at least 800 pence per share had been made and when Carlsberg has agreed to the publication of proper information about BBH prospects," S&N added.
Top performing sectors so far today
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Real Estate 3,351.10 +3.45%
Forestry & Paper 4,378.60 +3.17%
Personal Goods 8,580.90 +3.03%
General Retailers 1,566.40 +2.08%
Food & Drug Retailers 4,978.10 +2.01%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 3,803.10 -2.43%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 244.10 -1.61%
Oil & Gas Producers 8,487.90 -1.23%
Beverages 7,054.10 -1.08%
Software & Computer Services 453.40 -0.94%
