Shares in Ocado, the UK-based online supermarket, closed trading on Tuesday over 8% higher – despite the group reporting hefty losses of £9m (€10.2m) for the first six months of its 2018 financial year. It has reported a pre-tax profit just twice in its 17-year history.

Ocado reported a 12% rise in half-year sales to £800 (€906m), with over 90% of this coming from grocery sales. Earnings (EBITDA) for the period fell 14% to £39m (€44m).

The company continues to invest heavily in capital expenditure in selling its technology to other supermarkets and building robot-operated warehouse facilities for established retailers such as Morrisons, Groupe Casino in France, Sobeys in Canada and US supermarket giant Kroger.

For 2018 capital expenditure will exceed £210m, up from £160m last year. Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner believes investing in building technology for established supermarkets will ultimately become profitable, as it has a higher margin than selling groceries.