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FTSE 100 Live: Sainsbury’s and Unite dish shareholders cash; Mining merger talks

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Welcome back to the FTSE 100 liveblog from Morning Wire

Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog.

It was Britain’s retail sector taking centre stage yesterday amid a fresh influx of corporate updates that gave a snapshot of the industry’s December performance.

Tesco came out swinging, revealing its market share had climbed to the highest in 10 years after a Christmas sales bump.

Still, the grocer’s shares tumbled seven per cent in yesterday’s trading session amid price war pressures as Asda strengthened its price promise.

Greggs found itself in a similar boat as the baker shed seven per cent after warning shareholders it was still facing a “challenging market”.

Christmas sales grew for the baker, but at a far sluggish pace than they might have hoped and the firm was quick to point the finger to subdued consumer spending.

Fresh figures released today from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Sensormatic showed total UK footfall was down 2.9 per cent over the month year-on-year in December.

“In the face of rising bills and food costs, many consumers held off for post-Christmas sales, with the week after Christmas the only one to see a significant uplift,” BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.

Though it wasn’t all glum in the FTSE 100 and wider City market yesterday, Marks and Spencer finished the day in the green as the retail giant began putting its cyber attack story behind it and eyed being “back on track” come the Spring.

Today Sainsbury’s will round off a week of retail updates as it provides its own snapshot of festive trading.

We’ll be bringing you the latest news and analysis as we get it.

Here’s a few of our top stories from yesterday