Sainsbury’s shares rose in early trading on Tuesday following the release of a very respectable trading statement for the 16 weeks to 21 June 2025.

The supermarket recorded attractive growth across both the grocery and the general merchandise segments as the company’s actions to improve its offering paid off. Grocery sales grew 5% while general merchandise sales increased 4.2%.

Investors will be pleased to see the 30th consecutive period of customer number growth driving market share gains for the third year in a row.

The company has set out to improve its core grocery offering and is delivering. Sainsbury’s is successfully fighting off the challenge from the discounters by applying its ‘Aldi Price Match’ to 800 products and making Nectar prices available on 9,000 products.

At the same time, it’s maintaining its premium appeal via the launch of 250 new ‘Taste the Difference’ products that have been well received by customers.

“Sainsbury’s made its way onto more customers’ shopping lists in the first quarter.  It continues to pinch market share off the competition, reaching its highest total in almost a decade,” said Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“With more trolleys rolling toward its tills, the nation’s second largest supermarket saw like-for-like sales rise 4.7% in the period. In part, that’s thanks to a herculean effort to improve its range, quality and value perception in recent times. And expanding its Taste the Difference range, ALDI price match and Nectar prices across even more products is helping to keep existing customers loyal.

There were questions about Argos and general merchandise starting to creep in after several periods of slow growth, and while today’s number won’t completely squash any doubts, they do show progress in customer activity driven by refined online experiences.

Although sales are rising, Sainsbury’s is clearly conscious of the impact of higher costs and has outlined a plethora of cost-saving measures to help preserve margins.

“Despite the top line moving higher, recent changes to employers’ National Insurance and minimum wages are set to bring at least £140 million of extra costs this year,” Chiekrie explained.

“Sainsbury’s is doing what it can to trim costs throughout the business, including closing its in-store cafes and streamlining behind-the-scenes operations, but the group’s guidance still points to full-year underlying retail profits remaining broadly flat at around £1 billion. 

“Trading, so far, has been promising, and while it’s still early in the group’s financial year, signs of an all-out price war among the major supermarkets hasn’t materialised. If that remains the case through the rest of the year, the current profit guidance looks a touch conservative, so there could be some positive surprises for investors who are willing to remain patient.”

Sainsbury’s shares were 1.8% higher at the time of writing and are 7% higher on the year.

UK medical device company Belluscura plc reported robust May sales of $0.54 million for its X-PLOR portable oxygen device, up from $0.52 million in April, as demand for portable oxygen solutions continues to grow globally.

Belluscura develops and manufactures patented portable oxygen concentrators to assist people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The company’s positive trading update comes as the company addresses short-term funding needs through a $1.5 million convertible loan facility arranged by US merchant bank Omaha Value, Inc.

Belluscura has drawn an initial $250,000 from the facility, which carries an 18% annual interest rate and is repayable within 12 months. The company can draw down at their discretion.

The funding is intended to bridge the company to a larger fundraising round, with Belluscura signing heads of terms for Omaha to arrange a minimum $12 million direct subscription at 1.125 pence per share. This is a premium to the current share price.

The equity round includes warrant provisions that could see Omaha and its investor group control over 30% of the enlarged share capital.

Despite the financial pressures, Belluscura confirmed its new DISCOV-R product remains on track for commercial launch in Q3 2025.

Belluscura has won the interest of major players in the medical device industry; it must now capture this opportunity by delivering products.

Audio visual services provider MediaZest (LON: MDZ) moved into profit in the six months to March 2025. Revenues improved from £1.17m to £1.91m, while a loss of £141,000 was turned into a profit of £56,000. Management is confident of a full year profit thanks to project wins. Repaying the invoice discounting facility should save £30,000/year. Acquisitions are being evaluated. The share price jumped 36% to 0.085p.

ActiveOps (LON: AOM) is buying fellow workforce optimisation software provider Enlighten Operational Excellence for £6m, plus two further payments of up to £6m and £4m respectively depending on customer renewals. ActiveOps has net cash of £21m. Annual sales of the Australian company were $15.3m. This deal will double US revenues, which has been a focus of growth, and should enhance 2026-27 earnings by 15% to nearly 3.5p/share. The share price is 9.8% higher at 140p.

Kodal Minerals (LON: KOD) has signed an offtake agreement for the Bougouni lithium project in Southern Mali. This is with Hainan Mining, which owns 51% of the project. It will buy 100% of the product from the DMS processing plant. There will be a floor price. The initial agreement lasts four years. The share price rose 7.84% to 0.275p.

Engineer Amcomri (LON: AMCO) has won a £12.9m contract to supply a developer of renewable energy facilities in 2025 and 2026. Cavendish has upgraded its forecasts for 2025 and 2026 by 4% for each year. This year’s pre-tax profit is expected to by £5.2m. The share price improved 6.9% to a new high of 108.5p, which is 16 times prospective 2026 earnings.

FALLERS

Chemotherapy drug delivery technology developer CRISM Therapeutics (LON: CRTX) is raising £800,000 at 12p/share and a retail offer could raise up to £100,000 more. This will finance the manufacture of a batch of ChemoSeed for evaluation of safety and efficacy in glioblastoma patients in a Phase 2 registration grade clinical trial, plus setting up of clinical trials. The share price slumped 40.5% to 12.5p.

Celadon Pharmaceuticals (LON: CEL) will not report its 2024 results today, so trading in the shares will be suspended on 1 July. Celadon is continuing with plans to leave AIM> The final £250,000 of the May 2024 placing of £2.1m is not going to be received. A further £1m of debt funding has been secured. A proposal has been received for a convertible loan note investment of up to £20m. The share price fell 21.7% to 9p.

Trinidad-focused oil and gas producer Touchstone Exploration Inc (LON: TXP) says that it has still not received £10.3m of the £15.4m raised in a recent placing, including £10m from Portillion Capital Asset Management. The extended deadline for the placing has passed so £5.05m has been raised. The other placing shares have been cancelled. Drilling activity will be deferred. Touchstone is required to raise at least $18m from share issues by the end of 2025 as part of its loan agreement. The share price slipped 21.3% to 15.75p.

MS International (LON: MSI) reported a record pre-tax profit of £20.1m in the year to April 2025, up from £15.7m the previous year. Cash has fallen by around one-third to £27.8m. Delays in contracts in the defence sector mean that the order book has fallen slightly. Defence accounts for 70% of revenues, but delays will hamper this year. Demand for forgings improved in the second half of last year, while the petrol station superstructures business will benefit from redevelopment programmes. The plan is to focus on defence and buyers were sought for the other businesses, but no realistic offer was made. The share price declined 14.3% to 1165p.

The FTSE 100 was marginally lower on Monday as the UK/US trade deal came into force and investors readied themselves for developments in other key trade negotiations.

London’s leading index had started the week higher, but gains turned to minor losses as Monday’s session progressed. The FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at the time of writing.

Canada is thrashing out a deal with the US, making concessions on tech taxes, while Trump has said he’d like the EU to boost spending on US defence products.

Markets are likely to be dictated by trade negotiations in the coming sessions, and there was a very minor sense of nervousness in the UK markets, while US equity markets looked set to break record highs.

“There is a lot going on to influence markets before the summer lull and investors’ animal spirits continue to fuel the equities space,” says Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

“Investors seem confident trade deals will be struck, geopolitical tensions ease, and a major economic slump is avoided. The big unknown is whether investors are correct or are simply being too complacent.

“Futures prices imply another robust session for Wall Street when it opens later today, with the S&P 500 indicated to open 0.4% ahead.

“The FTSE 100 was flat in early trading. Investors were tempted back to previously strong areas of the market such as defence and utilities, while pharmaceuticals were out of favour.”

Engineering firms, especially those with a weighting towards defence, are benefiting from a double whammy of optimism around trade and higher defence spending.

Rolls Royce was among the gainers as defence-related stocks continue to march higher after NATO’s pledge to boost defence spending. Rolls Royce shares were 2% higher at the time of writing.

Babcock and BAE Systems were also higher on the session.

UK-centric sectors such as retailers and housebuilders were weaker on the session. Marks and Spencer lost 2%, while Persimmon dropped 1.8%.

Intermediate Capital Group was the FTSE 100 top faller, losing 3%.

Defence technology group Chemring has announced the conditional acquisition of Landguard Systems for up to £20 million. The deal will see Chemring pay £14 million in cash upon completion, with additional earnouts of up to £6 million tied to performance targets.

Landguard, based in Fareham, Hampshire, specialises in software-defined radio systems and security products for defence, government, and law enforcement clients.

The company reported revenues of approximately £7 million in the year ending 31 January 2025.

The acquisition bolsters Chemring’s Roke division with market-leading products and intellectual property and 30 additional specialist engineers.

“The acquisition of Landguard further enhances Roke’s significant operational capabilities and is further evidence of Chemring delivering its strategy of delivering growth through a combination of organic investment and bolt-on acquisitions in high-priority defence and national security markets,” said Michael Ord, Chief Executive of Chemring.

Landguard’s current owner-managers are expected to remain with the company following completion.

Chemring said that the combination of Roke’s cyber and electromagnetic activities expertise with Landguard’s modular technologies will create what the company describes as a “unique UK sovereign portfolio” of defence and security capabilities. The group will hope that they are beneficiaries of the UK government’s defence spending boost.

Landguard’s systems enable customers to protect critical operational assets through high-performance tracking products operating across satellite communications and cellular networks. The company also produces software-defined radio transceivers that provide flexible, reprogrammable capabilities, incorporating the latest interoperability standards.

Chemring recently announced a 25% increase in its orderbook, and the Languard deal will add a further £300m sales pipeline to the group.