Tesco lifts British supermarket shares but M&S falls

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Shares in most of Britain's topsupermarket groups rose on Thursday, helped by a surge in Tesco as investors welcomed Tesco's restructuring plans, butMarks & Spencer fell after a weak trading update.

Tesco rose 5 percent, lifting shares of rivals such asSainsbury and WM Morrison.

However, M&S shares were down 2.4 percent after it posted aworse-than-expected 5.8 percent drop in underlying sales ofclothing, gifts and homeware over Christmas. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely)