A bit of surprise news from the supermarket sector today as Morrisons announced that like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, had gone up by 0.2% in the nine weeks to 3 January.
Many of those paid handsomely to “know” about these things expressed surprise at the development. And not without good reason.
Last year the Bradford-headquartered chain saw its annual profits fall by 52% to £345m - its worst results since 2007 – and suffered the ignominy of falling out of the FTSE 100.
But in response to today's sales figures, Morrisons shares shot up by 9% to 166.7p.
All good news for the firm although, with Sainsbury’s due to release its third-quarter figures tomorrow and Tesco on Thursday, the joy may yet be short-lived.