Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

Retail stocks were putting in a mixed performance in London on Tuesday with general retailers making gains while supermarket chains headed lower.Overall, the UK retail sector registered healthy growth in January, according to figures released this morning by British Retail Consortium (BRC) which showed that like-for-like (LFL) retail sales rose by 3.9% last month. However, according to Jefferies, the headline figure masks a sharp underlying shift, as some consumers cut back on their food spend to make way in their budgets to move house and spend more on clothing.Jefferies said there was a "very contrasting LFL development in food and non-food", with food LFL sales falling by 1.9% and non-food growing by nearly 10%."Non-food housing related items seem to be booming, with the qualitative commentary suggesting double-digit LFL growth for large ticket items typically linked to lifting housing transactions," the broker said.As such, DIY retailers such as B&Q owner Kingfisher and Homebase and Argos operator Home Retail were among the best performers today on the stock market.Also helping sentiment was homewares chain Dunelm which lifted its interim dividend by 11.1% after profits edged higher in its first half.Meanwhile, High Street retailers such as Sports Direct, M&S, Next and Debenhams were also making gains.On the other end of the scale, supermarket giants Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison were off investors' shopping lists today after data from retail researchers Kantar Worldpanel showed that the UK grocery market expanded at its slowest rate since 2005 in the last three months.Market growth slowed slightly to 2.4% in the 12 weeks to February 2nd with Tesco and Morrisons both losing market share in the period as a result of declining sales and heightened competition from discount chains such as Aldi and Lidl.Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,121.53 +3.14%General Retailers 2,787.47 +2.01%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 22,446.13 +1.90%Mining 17,027.86 +1.43%Life Insurance 6,932.24 +1.38%Bottom performing sectors so far todayFood & Drug Retailers 4,234.03 -1.57%Insurance (non-life) 1,852.89 -0.87%Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4,295.65 -0.80%Banks 4,685.14 -0.08%BC