After the reading the title it is fair to assume you’ll have Oasis’ ‘Little by Little’ song in your head for an annoyingly long time. So, if you’re not a fan we apologise for this. The pun does have some relevance though as today Kantar released their latest research on the British Grocery market. For the 12 weeks to August 14th, the overall market grew at 0.3%, which was attributed to the warmer weather. This claim was backed up by 23% growth in ice lolly sales last month, alongside sales of chilled drinks growing 10%. Promotional sales were at their lowest levels since 2010 as retailers move towards simpler pricing models. There was no evidence of Brexit related inflation in prices; in fact there was negative price inflation with a representative basket of goods now 1.3% cheaper than this time last year. Lidl was the fastest growing supermarket with sales growing 12.2%, Aldi also enjoyed growth of 10.4%. Tesco’s sales fell but at their slowest rate for 6 months suggesting they may return to growth soon.
Source (Kantar, 2016)
Property sales in the wake of the EU referendum vote haven’t been derailed, sending homebuilders higher for the second day in a row on the FTSE. Although house sales have declined from last year, it isn’t as bad as some may have initially feared. Persimmon’s strong results also relative to fears from investors helped many homebuilders populate the top of the main index. Miners also fared well on the day, with oil experiencing a mixed day. Eventually the FTSE 100 closed 0.59% higher at 6868.5. In other news unsurprisingly British export growth has hit a two year high after the devaluation of sterling in the aftermath of June 23’s vote.