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(Alliance News) - Tesco PLC on Thursday raised its annual guidance as it hailed trading over the Christmas period and its financial third quarter.
The London-based supermarket chain's third quarter is the 13 weeks to November 25, while Christmas covers the six weeks to January 6.
In the UK & Republic of Ireland, Tesco reported like-for-like sales growth of 7.3% in the third quarter, slowing to 6.4% over the six-week Christmas period.
The figures exclude value-added tax and fuel. Tesco cited a strong market share performance in the UK, adding 15 basis points to 27.9% in the four weeks to Christmas, and net switching gains for 10 12-week periods in a row, according to the monthly Kantar UK market survey.
"Our continued investments across the full breadth of our customer offer have resulted in a stronger trading performance than anticipated," Tesco said.
The company upgraded its guidance for the current financial year, now expecting retail adjusted operating profit of around GBP2.75 billion, which is above its previous guidance range of GBP2.6 to GBP2.7 billion.
Tesco shares rose 0.9% to 298.10 pence each on Thursday morning in London, bettering the wider FTSE 100 index, which was up 0.5%.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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