Sector movers: Tesco and Sainsbury on shopping lists as grocery stocks rise

16th Mar 2015 14:56

Supermarket stocks were the best performers in London on Monday as speculation about Tesco's data-analysis unit helped shares in the UK's largest retailer bounce, while Sainsbury rose ahead of a trading update the following day.According to Bloomberg this weekend, advertising giant WPP has made an offer for a majority stake in Tesco's Dunnhumby business, which developed its Clubcard loyalty scheme, to bolster its consumer behaviour knowledge.The news agency cited a source saying that Tesco is asking for £2bn for the entire division, which has also attracted interest from Warburg Pincus, Carlyle Group and TPG.Tesco appointed advisors back in January to "explore strategic options" for Dunnhumby as part of boss Dave Lewis's turnaround plan.The stock was up nearly 4% at 241.85p by the afternoon after settling at a six-week low on Friday following some gloomy research from Nielsen, which said that Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda had all lost market share in the 12 weeks to the end of February. Tesco's share in particular weakened to 27.6% from 28.1% a year earlier, as sales fell 1.1%.Sainsbury's was also up 4%, rebounding strongly after falling the previous session, as investors await the grocer's fourth-quarter trading update on Tuesday.Nielsen said that although sales at Sainsbury's declined 1.4% and its share eased to 16.4% from 16.8%, investments in advertising in February had a positive effect on its performance.Sector rival Morrisons was trading 1% higher on Monday. Nielsen said that Morrisons' market share held steady at 10.7% during the same period. Top performing sectors so far todayFood & Drug Retailers 3,368.09 +2.76%Tobacco 43,823.74 +2.09%Personal Goods 27,397.30 +2.02%Mobile Telecommunications 5,076.25 +1.79%Beverages 14,907.14 +1.72%Bottom performing sectors so far todayConstruction & Materials 4,626.54 -3.05%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 17,008.80 -0.52%Support Services 6,855.64 -0.03%