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MORRISONS IN THE BARGAIN BIN

A warning from Wm Morrison that shoppers are still hunting for bargains prompted a sell-off that wiped £348 million from the stock market value of the supermarket chain.

The Yorkshire-based grocer met expectations with a 1.3% rise in same-store sales in its third quarter to October 13.

This is below the stellar growth Morrison has recorded in previous years but the company said it viewed it as being in line with the market.

But investors balked at the cautious tone, sending the company’s shares down 11.3p, or 3.9%, to 278.7p even as the wider FTSE-100 hit a 29-month high. The company’s market value fell £348m to £7.4 billion.

While Tesco said earlier this year it saw rising demand for top end groceries, though this was in some part caused by promotional coupons. Morrison finance director Richard Pennycook said consumers face the impact of government spending cuts and an increase in value added tax to 20% in January.