Business
Supermarket giants and high street stalwarts to reveal festive figures
Tesco and Sainsbury’s will reveal whether it was a merry Christmas across their supermarket operations in festive trading updates next week, while Next and Marks & Spencer also report back from the high street.
The UK’s two biggest grocery chains have been battling it out to win over shoppers with their Christmas advertising campaigns and beat off ever-increasing competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Figures from Tesco on Thursday will show how it fared in the so-called golden quarter, having hiked its earnings guidance in October to between £2.9 billion and £3.1 billion.
Christmas trading will be crucial to Tesco meeting guidance, and chief executive Ken Murphy has warned the industry remains “incredibly competitive” amid a price war in the sector.
AJ Bell experts said: “As is the case with many retailers, Tesco’s shares have lost a little momentum since November, and the run-up to the Budget from Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“However, they are still up by a fifth in the past year and stand very close to levels last seen in 2010.”
The chain has increased its share of the market to 28.3% in recent weeks, according to Worldpanel, and is looking to beat sales growth of 3.7% seen in the previous six-week Christmas period.
Sainsbury’s figures on Friday also come after it recently increased its earnings outlook, saying it is now set for retail earnings of more than £1 billion after a better-than-expected half-year performance.
The group, which also owns the Argos chain, last year saw grocery sales rise 4.1% in the quarter to January, but more disappointing trading in Argos held overall growth back, with sales across the business up 2.7%.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The ongoing cost-cutting programme is helping to offset higher employment costs, and savings are also being reinvested in keeping food prices down.
“That should have helped lure in more customers in the run-up to Christmas, a period where shopping trollies get piled higher than usual.”
Outside of the supermarket sector, retail titans Next and M&S will give their verdict on Christmas trading on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Next is expected to cap another solid year of trading, having recently upped its guidance once again, saying it expects sales over the festive quarter to be significantly higher than previously predicted.
The fashion and homewares chain said at the end of October it expects full price sales to grow by around 7% in the quarter to January, increasing its guidance from 4.5%.
However, it has repeatedly cautioned over the consumer backdrop and will be watched closely for further comments on how consumer spending is holding up.
Fellow retail bellwether M&S will be hoping for a solid festive performance to help “draw a line under what has been a tough 2025”, according to Mr Chiekrie.
A cyber attack in April hit online sales hard after M&S was forced to suspend all website sales for six weeks, leading to a plunge in first half profits.
With a lingering but smaller impact of the hack in the second half, it will be looking for this to be offset by strong demand for its festive food and fashion ranges.
“The worst looks to be behind M&S now, but the group has some work to do to rebuild investors’ confidence,” said Mr Chiekrie.
Sales figures from Greggs, also on Thursday, will be examined for signs of better trading after slowing sales growth in recent months and a profit warning in July.
The group was impacted by warmer weather in the summer, but has also flagged tough market conditions and weak consumer confidence.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously threatened to remove the firm from the department’s supply chain.
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Business
Stocks To Watch: Vishal Mega Mart, Axis Bank, Jio Financial Services, Hindalco, Vedanta, And Others
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Stocks to watch: Shares of firms like Vishal Mega Mart, Axis Bank, Jio Financial Services, Hindalco, Vedanta, and others will be in focus on Friday’s trade
Stocks To Watch on February 27
Stocks to Watch Today, February 27, 2026: Indian equities are likely to open on a cautious note amid mixed global cues. As of 7:41 AM, GIFT Nifty futures were trading 87 points lower at 25,549.
Vishal Mega Mart: Promoter Samayat Services is reportedly looking to offload up to a 6.5 per cent stake via a block deal. The transaction is valued at around Rs 3,507.5 crore, with a floor price of Rs 115 per share.
Axis Bank: The private sector lender has approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking approval to retain a higher stake in its subsidiary, Axis Finance, with only limited dilution proposed.
Netweb Technologies: The company has partnered with Vertiv to develop advanced liquid-cooled rack solutions for AI-focused data centres in India.
Jio Financial Services: The company has infused Rs 2,000 crore into its subsidiary, Jio Credit Ltd, to fund business expansion and growth plans.
Hindalco: The acquisition of AluChem Companies, Inc. through Aditya Holdings LLC has been temporarily delayed after the CFIUS review in the US was paused due to a partial federal government shutdown.
Info Edge: The board has approved a commitment of Rs 250 crore to the newly launched B8 Fund I, a growth-stage fund aimed at strengthening its presence in India’s startup ecosystem.
Reliance Communications: The CBI has reportedly registered a fresh case against Anil Ambani and the company for allegedly defrauding Bank of Baroda of over Rs 2,220 crore between 2013 and 2017.
Ircon International: The Patna High Court has dismissed the company’s writ petition related to VAT assessments for the Ganga Bridge Project (FY11–FY17), upholding a demand of Rs 108.75 crore. Of this, Rs 27.39 crore has been paid, leaving an outstanding Rs 81.36 crore plus interest.
NBCC: The state-run firm has secured project management consultancy orders worth about Rs 775.27 crore (excluding GST) from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for redevelopment projects in New Delhi.
MSTC: The company has emerged as the lowest bidder for a Coal India tender to act as an external service provider for non-regulated sector (NRS) linkage auctions for three years.
Onesource Specialty Pharma: The NSE and BSE have issued no-objection letters for the proposed merger and arrangement involving Steriscience Specialties, Brooks Steriscience and Strides Pharma Services.
Vedanta: ICRA has assigned an ‘ICRA AA’ rating to the company’s NCDs with a ‘Watch Developing’ outlook. It also reaffirmed the long-term rating at ‘ICRA AA’ (Watch Developing) and the short-term rating at ‘ICRA A1+’.
BPCL: The oil marketing company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore — Bharat Petroleum Global Energy Services — to set up a trading desk for crude oil, natural gas and petrochemical products.
Brigade Enterprises: The company has partnered with Primus Senior Living to develop three senior living communities in South India, with an estimated gross development value of Rs 750 crore.
Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels: The firm has signed a management agreement with Luxmi Tea Co. to operate a 100-room premium hotel under “The Park” brand in Siliguri, West Bengal.
GMDC: The company has signed an MoU with NTPC to jointly explore opportunities in coal and lignite gasification, along with related downstream projects.
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February 27, 2026, 08:21 IST
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Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be a superior offer.
Earlier this week, Paramount raised its bid to buy the entirety of WBD to $31 per share, up from $30 per share, all cash. It was the latest amendment to Paramount’s multiple offers in recent months — and since moving forward with a hostile bid to buy the company — and it’s now unseated a deal between WBD and Netflix to sell the legacy media company’s studio and streaming businesses for $27.75 per share.
Last week, Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to reengage with Paramount, resulting in the higher bid. Paramount’s offer is for the entirety of WBD, including its pay-TV networks, such as CNN, TBS and TNT.
Netflix had four business days to make changes to its own proposal in light of Paramount’s superior bid, the WBD board said in a statement Thursday.
Instead, the decision by the streaming giant to walk away puts a pin in a drawn-out saga that saw amended offers from both bidders.
Netflix stock spiked 10% in extended trading Thursday, while Paramount stock gained 5%. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2%.
“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”
The latest Paramount bid included a $7 billion breakup fee in the event the proposed merger doesn’t win regulatory approval. The company also agreed to pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD would owe Netflix if that deal didn’t go through.
Sarandos told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in an interview last week that Netflix granted WBD the waiver to reopen Paramount talks in order to give shareholders clarity.
“Paramount had been making a ton of noise, flooding the zone with confusion for shareholders … including floating all these hypothetical offers and talking directly to the shareholders and bypassing the Warner Bros. Discovery board,” Sarandos said at the time. “So we’ve given the opportunity to get those shareholders exactly what they deserve, which is complete clarity and certainty.”
However, Sarandos had fallen short of commenting on whether Netflix would up its own offer to match a revised Paramount bid.
And Thursday, Sarandos attended meetings at the White House to discuss the potential tie-up.
“Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process,” the Netflix co-CEOs said in their statement.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.,” they said. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
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