London: Britain’s top equity index edged lower on Wednesday, with supermarket stocks such as Sainsbury
and Tesco among the worst-performers after weak sales data.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index dipped by 0.1 per cent, or 4.33 points, to 6,818.43 points going into the close of the trading day.
Sainsbury fell 2.2 per cent, making it the worst-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, while Tesco retreated by 1.2 per cent after data from Kantar Worldpanel showed yet more weak sales for the country’s top supermarket retailers.
Kantar Worldpanel said UK grocery market sales rose 0.8 per cent in the 12 weeks to August 17 — the slowest rate of growth in a decade for a 12-week period — as the top companies face competition from low-cost rivals such as Aldi and Lidl.
