Tesco: profit-taking after Christmas trading update

(CercleFinance.com) - Tesco shares were down on Thursday morning, the victim of some profit-taking in the wake of its trading update for the key Christmas period.


At around 9am (London time), the British retailer's share price was down by more than 1.1%, compared with a gain of around 0.6% for the FTSE 100 index.

The group announced this morning that like-for-like sales had risen by 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January.

In the third quarter, i.e. the 13 weeks to November 23, like-for-like sales had risen by 2.8%.

For the 19-week holiday period as a whole, sales were up 3.1%, slightly ahead of the consensus target of 2.9%.

In a press release, Tesco points out that its market share in the UK rose by 78 basis points to 28.5%, its highest level since 2016.

The supermarket chain took the opportunity to reaffirm its operating profit target of around £2.9bn for its current 2024/2025 financial year.

These solid figures were, however, well anticipated by the market, as evidenced by the gains of almost 9% recorded by the stock since mid-November.


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