Interestingly, as we head into supermarket chain Sainsbury’s (SBRY) first-half results on 2 November, the group’s shares are trading just above their lows of the last six months.

In contrast, shares in grocery market leader Tesco (TSCO) are trading just below their high for the year after the firm posted better-than-expected first half sales and raised its full-year operating profit guidance earlier this month.

Sainsbury’s sales growth has been in line with or slightly ahead of the UK grocery market in each of the last half-dozen monthly till roll surveys by Kantar, and the group has slightly improved its market share to 14.8%, so we suspect the upcoming  results will be at least in line with the consensus.

However, in the final three months of 2022 the firm’s market share climbed to as much as 15.5%, which looks like a tall order this time round. Limited-assortment retailers Aldi and Lidl are consistently growing their sales by 20% or more month after month, so it will likely be the outlook which decides the fate of the shares on the day.

UK UPDATES OVER THE NEXT 7 DAYS

FULL YEAR RESULTS

30 October: Lok’n Store

31 October:  Up Global Sourcing, Essensys

HALF YEAR RESULTS

30 October: Airtel Africa

2 November: BT, Sainsbury (J)

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

27 October: NatWest

31 October: Georgia Capital, NCC

1 November: GSK, Smurfit Kappa

2 November: Shell, Helios Towers, Smith & Nephew

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