Asda sales underperform rivals again

Sales at supermarket Asda, the UK arm of Wal-Mart, again fell more than at any of its "big four" rivals over the past three months, though all continued to be hurt by the growth of the discounters and deflation, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Asda's sales fell 3.5 percent in the 12 weeks to Nov.8, with its market share falling 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 16.4 percent.

In August, Asda boss Andy Clarke described a 4.7 percent slump in second-quarter sales as the firm's "nadir" but there has been little improvement since.

Asda's third quarter to Sept. 30 results will be reported later on Tuesday.

Kantar said Tesco's sales fell 2.5 percent in the 12 week period, while Morrisons' sales were down 1.7 percent.

Sainsbury's did, however, see a 1.5 percent sales rise.

Discounters Aldi and Lidl saw growth of 16.5 percent and 19.0 percent respectively, Kantar Worldpanel said, taking their combined market share to 10 percent for the first time.