Sainbury issued a promising trading statement last week but why no mention of margins? It's not alone with all the other multiples reluctant to cover margins in their quarterly updates. Good see that Marks gives them a mention.
Commentary at www.investorschampion.com

Some support @ 240p and if sp manages to stay above 50DMA hope springs eternal. Glass half full for now.

Held steady and now back above 25DMA. For how long who knows, but at least that's September out of the way.

LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
29 Sep Beaufort... N/A Hold
29 Sep Exane BNP... 265.00 Outperform
29 Sep Deutsche Bank N/A Buy
29 Sep HSBC 185.00 Reduce
28 Sep Shore Capital N/A Under Review
26 Sep Jefferies... 250.00 Hold
26 Sep Credit Suisse 315.00 Outperform
21 Sep Deutsche Bank 280.00 Buy
21 Sep Barclays... 270.00 Equal weight
20 Sep Exane BNP... 265.00 Outperform

A few good days. Looking for 280p

Looking good.

Interim results next Wenesday 9th November.

Tanked.

Third Quarter Trading Statement for the 15 weeks to 7 January 2017

Good Christmas performance as customers choose Sainsbury's for quality, choice and value

· Sainsbury's: Total Retail sales1 up 0.8 per cent (excl. fuel) and like-for-like Retail sales up 0.1 per cent (excl. fuel), with total volumes up and like-for-like volumes flat

· Argos: Total sales up 4.1 per cent and like-for-like sales up 4.0 per cent

· Combined Sainsbury's and Argos like-for-like sales up 1.0 per cent (excl. fuel)

more.....

Good run since December.

StockMarketWire.com
J Sainsbury made an underlying profit before tax of £251 million in the 28 weeks to 23 September, 9% lower than the year before as a result of wage cost inflation, price investment and the consolidation of Argos' first half losses.

Group sales rose 17% to £16.3 billion, reflecting the consolidation of Argos, but like-for-like sales (excluding fuel) rose by just 1.6%.

Underlying earnings per share dropped by 22%, reflecting a full period's dilution impact of new shares issued to Home Retail Group shareholders on acquisition.

EBITDA synergies totalled £25 million and the group said it is on track to deliver its £160 million EBITDA synergy target from the Argos acquisition six months ahead of schedule.

Statutory profit before tax fell from £372 million to £220 million due to the prior year's £111 million one-off property gain from Nine Elms and a £98 million profit from the sale of the pharmacy business.

Groceries online sales increased by 7%, convenience sales by over 8% and clothing sales by almost 7%. Clothing online sales grew by 54%.

Sainsbury's Bank registered a 56% growth in total income and 17% increase in underlying operating profit to £34 million, primarily reflecting the full consolidation of Argos Financial Services.

Mike Coupe, group chief executive of J Sainsbury, said: "We have delivered a good performance across the Group in the last six months, with more customers choosing to shop at Sainsbury's in the first half than ever before. We are now three years into delivering our differentiated strategy and are seeing clear results."

He added: "We have exceeded our cost savings target as a group, saving £100 million this half, which gives us the flexibility to increase pay for our store colleagues a

Proactive investor-

Morrisons and Sainsbury's shares tank after Kantar reveals drop in market share
Share
15:20 12 Dec 2017
Grocery inflation reached its highest level since 2013 as a weaker pound pushed up import costs


Morrisons is the biggest faller on the FTSE 100
Shares in Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) and J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) plunged on Tuesday after industry data showed the supermarket chains both lost further market share in the 12 weeks to 3 December.
Tough competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to chip away at market share of the so-called ‘big four’ supermarkets during the period, while grocery inflation hit its highest level since 2013, Kantar Worldpanel revealed.
READ: J Sainsbury more at risk than peers from downturn in UK economy, reckons Jefferies
Morrisons’ market share fell to 10.6% from 10.8% the same period a year ago, despite sales rising 1.4% year-on-year.
Sainsbury’s market share dropped to 16.3% from 16.5% while sales edged up 2%.
Tesco was the best performing of the big four, with sales up 2.5% even as its market share fell to 28.2% from 28.3%.
Asda sales climbed 1.2% with market share dipping to 15.0% from 15.3%.
Aldi the fastest growing grocer
Aldi was the fastest growing grocer during the period with sales boosted by chilled food products, including ready meals and desserts.
Its market share rose to 6.9% from 6.2% and sales rose 15.1% as it continued to open more stores. 
Lidl’s market share increased to 5.1% from 6.2% and sales grew 14.5%.
Overall, UK grocery sales rose 3.1% despite the pressure of higher inflation on UK consumers.
Morrisons and Sainsbury's remnained the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 in late afternoon trading with their shares down 5.2% to 210p and 4.6% to 233.4p respecively, while Tesco shares were down 0.6% at 204.25p.
Grocery inflation highest level since 2013
Grocery inflation reached 3.6%, driven by price rises in butter, fish and fresh pork.
A sharp fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote last year has pushed import costs higher, putting a strain on supermarkets that have been trying to keep prices low to attract hard-hit customers in a competitive environment. 
But higher inflation did not stop consumers from spending money on alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks ahead of Christmas. 
“Alcohol sales are up by nearly £172mln compared to this time last year and while volume sales have increased, this impressive growth is mainly a result of consumers choosing more expensive festive tipples," said Fraser McKevit, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
“Gin, whisky and sparkling wine all saw significant growth: up by 26%, 10% and 7% respectively as shoppers pushed the boat out.”
"Still small but growing rapidly, non-alcoholic beer is the new kid on the block this Christmas – growing sales by 27% during the past 12 weeks.”
 -- Updates share prices --

StockMarketWire.com
J Sainsbury upgraded its annual profits guidance after posting a rise in third-quarter sales and extracting more savings from its merger with Argos.

Total retail sales excluding fuel in the 15 weeks to January 6 grew by 1.2% On a like-for-like basis, they grew by and 1.1%.

"We had a strong Christmas week, with record sales, over 340,000 online grocery orders and stellar growth in Argos fast track delivery and collection," chief executive Mike Coupe said.

"Online accounted for 20% of the group's sales during the quarter," he added.

Sainsbury's now expects to achieve £80m-£85m of Ebitda synergies from the Argos acquisition by March 2018, ahead of previous guidance of £65m.

As a consequence its expects 2017/18 underlying profit to be moderately ahead of published consensus of £559m.

StockMarketWire.com
Supermarket chain J Sainsbury said that it and Walmart had agreed to the terms of a proposed £7.3bn acquisition of the US's group's Asda business.

The deal would give Walmart 42% of the combined group's shares, plus £2.975bn in cash.

Walmart, however, would not hold more than 29.9% of the merged entity's total voting rights.

Both the Sainsbury's and Asda brands would be maintained, while Ebitda synergies of at least £500m would be targeted.

Separately, Sainsbury's also announced that its underlying pre-tax profit for the year through 10 March had increased by 1.4% to £589m. For the current financial year, the company said its expectations were in line with current market consensus of £629m.

Group sales rose 9.0% to £31.7m, while sales on a like-for-like basis increased by 1.3%.

Statutory pre-tax profit fell 19% to £409m, weighed by one-off costs associated with proposed changes to store operations, Argos integration costs and Sainsbury's Bank transition costs.

Sainsbury's declared a final dividend of 7.1p per share, up 7.6% on-year.

Merger synergies would largely be comprised of buying benefits, opening Argos in Asda stores and operational efficiencies, Sainsbury's said. It pledged to close no Sainsbury's or Asda stores as a result of the deal.

'We believe that the combination of Sainsbury's and Asda will create substantial value for our shareholders and will be excellent news for our customers and our colleagues,' Sainsbury's chief executive David Tyler said.

'As one of the largest employers in the country, the combined business will become an even greater contributor to the British economy.'

Walmart International chief executive Judith McKenna said the deal was consistent with the US retail giant's strategy of looking for new ways to drive overseas growth.

'We believe this combination will create a dynamic new retail player better positioned for even more success in a fast-changing and competitive UK market,' she said.

The deal will be subject to the approval of UK competition authorities.

A decent short to be had here at some point.

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its underweight investment rating on Sainsbury (J) PLC (LON:SBRY) and raised its price target to 260p (from 200p).

Most of the reports I have read, imply that this deal won't go through. JPM Caz seem to agree.

Not that I know anything about supermarkets but won't the deal involve a lot of shops being sold by each company due to competition ....Tesco and others are bound to make up a whole list of objections...wanting such an outlet to be sold...etc.....might take half a year to sort out.....and our supermarkets need to see things on a European scale, not just limiting themselves to the UK.....

Sainsburys got to think again.