Tesco shares buoyant after it joins 8216 beat the street 8217 week

This is no UK retail renaissance, but UK investors seem grateful for the small mercies on offer.

Shareholders applauded Tesco and Burberry on Thursday, after they became the latest high street names to confound the worst market fears.

UK supermarket No.1 topped a tanking FTSE after reporting its first group like-for-like sales result for four years of 0.4%.

But what really impressed was the return of positive same-store sales in the UK, which rose 1.3% year-on-year in the six weeks to 9th January.

The City was expecting a fall of exactly the same amount.

Lower prices, 4,000 more staff, and a painstakingly put together Christmas mix boosted volumes 3.5% and transactions 3.4%.

This has enabled Tesco to rebound from the ignominy of reporting one of the biggest losses in UK corporate history less than a year ago, to a position of industry leading growth.

By this point though, few investors will conclude that a turnaround has begun, whether at Tesco or for a supermarkets overall.

Comparison effects abound.

And Tesco itself has not let a spectacular Christmas during thrifty times go to its head.

It’s sticking to its forecast for £930m in operating profit.

In other words, Tesco recognises that the very factors that have pushed big grocers into their current fate have not gone away.

Tesco’s operating margin has latterly been negative by 9%.

The worst amongst its relative equals.

On that basis, investors are likely to pocket Thursday’s stock price rise, rather quickly, we suspect, given the current uncertain (even somewhat alarming) wider market backdrop, and TSCO’s respectable 15% run-up in a month.

Traders of City Index’s Daily Funded Trade in Tesco should keep on the gap between 157p and 164p—Wednesday’s close/Thursday’s open.

There’s a risk that it might be filled quite rapidly as momentum falters (Slow Stochastic sub-chart).

That said, whilst the current uptrend remains within its current virtuously broad channel, short-term support is likely at least at 145p and certainly at the reaction lows around 137p from earlier in the month.

TESCO DFT HALF-HOURLY CHART

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