Europe's best-performing food retail stock Tesco was pushed up higher today, after announcing group sales for the seven weeks ending January 6th grew by 15.4 per cent.
Tesco said group sales over the crucial Christmas season were driven by all sectors of the business. Total British sales were up 10.5 per cent which the company admitted was flattered by one extra trading day over the New Year, compared with a year earlier.
Tesco said like-for-like sales in stores open more than a year were up 6.9 per cent over the seven weeks ending January 6th.
This exceeded analysts expectations of around 4-5 per cent and was in stark contrast to rival J Sainsbury which reported like-for-like sales growth of just 0.7 per cent for the 12 weeks to January 6th.
Tesco shares, which were trading up a penny ahead of the news, touched a day's high of 268p and by 12.35 p.m. were up 2.4 per cent to 263-3/4p. The stock has risen 52 per cent in the last 12 months compared with the FT Eurotop non-cyclical services index which fell 29 per cent.
Reuters