Shares in UK supermarket Tesco have surged almost 10% in the last week.

Tesco shares rallied strongly to a two-month high at £2.16 after the grocery giant unveiled a trading update for the important Christmas period, which showed Tesco significantly outperformed the wider UK grocery retail market in December.

Sales growth

Tesco reported like-for-like sales growth in its UK stores of 2.2% for the Christmas period, which was well ahead of the market average of 1.6% sales growth.

In comparison, rival supermarkets, such as Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Marks & Spencer, all struggled over the Christmas period.

Sainsbury’s reported growth in food sales of just 0.4%, while Morrison’s sales growth over the Christmas period of just 0.6%.

High-end retailer Marks & Spencer suffered the worst performance of all the UK supermarkets this Christmas.

The retailer reported a disappointing 2.1% decline in sales of food this Christmas period, which the retailer blamed on difficult market conditions and weak consumer confidence.

Other companies

Of the other agri-food companies listed on the stock market, shares in Kerry Group rallied 5% in the week to reach €93.60, while Aryzta shares are up almost 16% to €1.17.

Shares in FBD Holdings and Glanbia were both down 2% this week, while Donegal Investment Group’s share price fell 3% to €8.50.

On oil markets, the price of Brent crude oil has surged over the last week by more than 10% to hit close to $62/barrel.