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Tesco reports ‘strong' Christmas’ trading

Tesco has reported "strong Christmas" trading, with UK like-for-like sales up 1.3% in the six weeks to 9 January,

However, the supermarket also reported a 1.5% fall in UK sales for the 13-week quarter ending 28 November and group sales for the period were down 0.5%.

Group like-for-like sales were up 2.1% in the six-week festive period, while customer satisfaction grew between 3% and 5% according to the company.

Dave Lewis, Tesco’s chief executive, said: "Our Christmas performance was strong, benefiting from lower prices on an outstanding range of products. Our customer service improved materially and our colleagues went the extra mile. Put simply, we put customers at the heart of everything we did and they responded by buying more of what they needed at Tesco."

Tesco’s festive period performance is the best so far of the UK’s Big Four supermarkets. Yesterday, Sainsbury’s a marginal sales increase of 0.8% for the 15 weeks to 9 January, while Morrisons a trading statement earlier in the week, reporting a 0.2% increase in like-for-like sales in the nine weeks to 3 January. Both sets of figures beat analyst expectations.

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Argos owner Home Retail Group has mixed Christmas

Home Retail Group’s (HRG) Argos suffered a 2.2% fall in like-for-like sales in the 18 weeks to 2 January, while its sister retailer Homebase experienced 5% growth.

HRG is currently the subject of a bid from Sainsbury’s and yesterday said it was in talks to sell Homebase to Australia’s Wesfamers for £340m.

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Apple boosts PC share while global market falls

Apple was one of just two computer manufacturers to defy a global 10.6% fall in computer sales in 2015, according to figures from analysts IDC.

The Mac manufacturer grew its global market share by 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 7.9%, while rival HP’s market share fell 10.1% and Dell’s by 5.7%.

Lenovo saw its share fall 4.5% to 20%, remaining the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, while Asus was the only other PC-maker to experience growth, increasing its share by 0.8%.

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