UK supermarket chain Tesco on Thursday lifted annual profits guidance after better-than-expected third quarter and Christmas sales.
The company said it now expected retail operating profit to be slightly above the top-end of previous £2.5bn – £2.6bn guidance, and forecast bank operating profit to be between £160m – £200m, due to the effect of more favourable economic forecasts on its provision for expected credit losses.
The group said UK like-for-like sales rose 0.2% year-on-year in the three months to November 27 and were up 0.3% during the six weeks to January 8.
