Ocado customers are once again buying more goods after a string of price cuts won back middle-class shoppers.

The online supermarket said sales over the three months to August 27 were 7.2 per cent higher than 12 months earlier at £569.6million.

Crucially for the company – and its partner Marks & Spencer at the Ocado Retail arm – shoppers bought more items in August than in the same month last year.

This was the first rise in volumes since the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdown restrictions led to a boom in online food deliveries.

In a further boost, Ocado Retail boss Hannah Gibson hailed the firm’s ‘great momentum’, adding: ‘We have started the final quarter positively.’

On a roll: Ocado said sales over the three months to August 27 were 7.2% higher than 12 months earlier at £569.6m

Ocado shares rose 1.6 per cent – taking its gains for the year to 30 per cent – while M&S gained 2.7 per cent. 

Its stock has risen more 80 per cent this year, earning it a place back in the FTSE 100 index after a four-year absence.

Signs of recovery at the Ocado Retail business will be a welcome relief for bosses there and at M&S. 

At Marks’s annual general meeting in July, chairman Archie Norman said he was ‘not happy’ with the performance of the joint venture, which sees M&S food sold through the Ocado website.

Tim Steiner, co-founder and chief executive of the Ocado group, which includes its technology business as well as the retail joint venture with M&S, also admitted the results of the tie-up have been ‘disappointing’ and that the business was ‘not where we wanted it to be’.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said yesterday’s figures suggest ‘things are looking up’.

Ocado said it received an average 381,000 orders per week in the third quarter – up 1.9 per cent on a year earlier – with customer numbers up 1.5 per cent to 961,000. 

The average value of shoppers’ baskets rose by 4.2 per cent or £4.87 to £120.72 but the number of items dropped once again from 45 to 44.

Delivering the goods: Things are looking up for Ocado’s Tim Steiner (left) and Archie Norman of M&S (right) 

‘The average basket size is still shrinking, which means it is not a full house for Ocado in terms of progress,’ said Mould.

Ocado said it expects the retail business to be back in the black in the second half of the year following a £2.5million loss in the first. 

Gibson said high household bills were still a concern for the grocer’s well-heeled customer base.

At the start of September, Ocado announced its third round of price cuts since June and has made more than 630 reductions.

Gibson said: ‘Value matters incredibly to customers at the moment. 

‘The cost of living is a very real thing for many customers. It’s not a past tense.’

Despite the recent reductions, prices increased by 8.4 per cent on average across its products in the third quarter, although Ocado said this was ‘considerably’ below wider levels of grocery inflation in the UK. 

Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘All attention now turns to the final quarter, where festive trading starts to ramp up, and this should give a clear indication into the consumer confidence of Ocado customers, and settle the debate about how resilient Ocado’s offering really is – with volumes taking centre stage.’

The proportion of homes on the market which have had their prices slashed is at its highest level in more than ten years.

More than a third of properties (36.3 per cent) currently for sale have had at least one price reduction – the highest figure since January 2011 – according to property website Rightmove.

Cut: More than a third of properties currently for sale have had at least one price reduction

The average size of the price cut is also the highest since 2011 at 6.2 per cent.

When this reduction is applied to the average asking price, at £366,281 in September, this equates to a typical price cut of £22,709, Rightmove revealed.

But Rightmove said there are signs of activity starting to pick up, with the number of new properties coming to market jumping by 12 per cent in the first week of September.

‘It’s been a slower than usual August, so all eyes will be on market activity over the next few weeks, which will set the trend for the rest of the year,’ Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science, said.

Watches of Switzerland Group shares tumbled on Friday following news that Rolex had bought luxury retailer Bucherer.

The announcement of the acquisition left investors worried that Rolex is planning a long-term shift away from using authorised partners for retail sales to instead sell directly to wealthy shoppers.

Such a deal could make a massive dent in Watches of Switzerland’s trade, although the London-based company insisted the deal would not see a change to Rolex’s ‘processes of product allocation or distribution developments.’

Slump: Watches of Switzerland Group shares plummeted on Friday after watchmaker Rolex revealed it had bought luxury retailer Bucherer

Bucherer is a watch and jewellery retailer with more than 100 outlets worldwide, including seven in prime UK shopping destinations, such as Selfridges on Oxford Street and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Its relationship with Rolex goes back almost a century when Ernst Bucherer, son of founder Carl Friedrich, struck an agreement with Rolex co-founder Hans Wilsdorf for the company to become a major retail partner for the watchmaker.

Apart from selling Rolex and Tudor timepieces, the Lausanne-headquartered firm provides an after-sales service centre and watch repair workshops.

Rolex said Jorg G. Bucherer, nephew of Ernst and grandson of Carl Friedrich, has decided to sell the business for an undisclosed amount in order to found a charitable foundation.

It added the takeover was ‘the best solution not only for its own brands but also for all the watch and jewellery partner brands, as well as for all the employees of the Bucherer Group.’

According to Watches of Switzerland, Rolex bosses confirmed they were not making a ‘strategic move into retail’ and would have no ‘operational involvement’ in the Bucherer business.

But despite this reassurance, Watches of Switzerland Group shares plunged 20 per cent, or 140p, to 553.5p just before 3pm on Friday.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘There has been a trend among various product manufacturers, including the big trainer companies, to sell direct to the consumer.

‘In doing so, they learn more about customer preferences and make more margin as they can cut out the middleman for these direct sales.

‘Imagine that happening with Rolex. Theoretically, it could use Bucherer as its channel to sell and not have to bother with other authorised dealers such as Watches of Switzerland.’

The revelation of the Bucherer takeover comes about a fortnight after Watches of Switzerland reported a slight dip in summer sales following a weaker performance in the UK, where trade was impacted by the timing of product deliveries.

Chief executive Brian Duffy has also blamed the Government’s abolition of VAT-free shopping for driving away international tourists from Britain to other prominent European cities.

He has joined hundreds of other leading British business leaders in supporting the Daily Mail’s campaign for the ‘tourist tax’ to be overturned.

Shares in US chipmaker Nvidia hit an all-time high last night as it cashed in on the artificial intelligence (AI) boom taking Wall Street by storm.

The stock surged after it revealed a blockbuster second quarter – smashing expectations and showing that the AI craze was here to stay.

Nvidia has been one of the winners of the explosion of AI, with its chips playing a vital role in ChatGPT, which has shifted the tech from fringe topic to a household name.

In a bumper set of results on Wednesday night, Nvidia said revenues more than doubled to £10.6billion in the three months to the end of June, and would climb to £13billion in the current quarter, a rise of around 170 per cent compared to the same time last year.

The business also posted an 843 per cent jump in its quarterly profits to £4.9billion.

The figures sent the shares soaring more than 6 per cent in New York yesterday to over $500 apiece for the first time.

Although the gains eased throughout the day’s trading, the shares have more than tripled this year alone, adding £700billion to Nvidia’s value.

That is around the same as the six biggest companies on the FTSE 100 are worth combined – from AstraZeneca and HSBC to Shell and BP as well as Diageo and Unilever.

The meteoric growth has handed a windfall to Nvidia’s founder and chief executive Jensen Huang, whose own wealth has ballooned by as much as £25billion so far this year. He owns a 3.5 per cent stake, worth £33billion.

Founded in 1993, the story of the world’s most valuable chip maker started at a Silicon Valley diner, with Huang and two other engineers, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Uncertain exactly what their business would look like, their initial strategy was to place early bets on markets that barely existed at the time, starting out with PC gaming and graphics processing.

This proved a major success, with their graphics processing unit now essential in the world of gaming in popular titles such as Call of Duty.

It also enjoyed some hype during the launch of the ‘metaverse’, the virtual reality pushed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he rebranded the company as Meta in 2021.

But its most recent bet in the world of AI has proved its most lucrative, making it the first semiconductor company to rack up a $1trillion market valuation in May.

It now means Nvidia, whose market cap is around $1.2trillion (£950m), is now a firm member of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ alongside fellow American corporate giants Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla.

And analysts are confident that its spot in this elite club will not be short-lived.

Dan Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: ‘Nvidia’s guidance was a ‘drop the mic’ moment as investors now recognise this AI demand story is as real as any tech trend we have seen in the last 30 years. It is only comparable to the internet in 1995 and Apple’s iPhone launch in 2007.’

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: ‘Confidence is a funny thing. Without it markets limp along as investors shun risk and double down on perceived safe havens. With it sectors soar, and that’s exactly what happened after Nvidia proved the AI phenomena is no flash in the pan.’

But it’s not just analysts who are bullish about Nvidia.

Windfall: Nvidia’s founder and chief executive Jensen Huang

‘A new computing era has begun. Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI,’ said Huang, who is known for his black leather jackets and a tattoo that looks like the Nvidia logo.

‘We have excellent visibility through the year and into next year,’ he added. ‘I think this is not a near-term thing, this is a long-term industry transition.’

And to truly underline this point, the company has said that it would buy back another £20billion of its shares, a move most firms make when leadership thinks the company is undervalued.

The company said it to ramp up production of its hardware into next year, appearing to silence doubts about whether this diner coffee-fuelled, start-up turned chip giant will keep growing.

Admiral defied difficult economic conditions in the first half as price hikes helped drive double-digit revenue growth. 

The insurer has hikes prices to offset elevated claims inflation, particularly within its motoring business, which has seen more expensive repairs, supply chain snags and soaring used car costs.

Price hikes led to Admiral’s revenues jumping by 21 per cent to £2.24billion for the six months ending June, with its UK motor insurance arm providing most of the growth.

Cost challenges: Motor insurers like Admiral have been hit by more expensive repairs, supply chain snags and soaring used car costs over the past year

Although the division’s customer numbers dipped slightly, turnover climbed by around £250million thanks to higher average premiums after lifting prices by about a fifth across new business and renewals.

Revenues also expanded in its international insurance and UK household segments for the same reasons, although they further benefited from a bump in customers.

Pre-tax profits rebounded by 4 per cent due to higher interest rates pushing up investment income and fewer payout claims than initially expected.

Milena Mondini de Focatiis, chief executive of Admiral, said: ‘The group has once again delivered a solid performance and strong growth in the context of a challenging market, although we believe that the cycle is turning.’

Admiral noted that secondhand vehicle prices, a major contributor to damage inflation, had seen prices begin to stabilise. 

She added: ‘Inflation persists, but we have navigated the cycle well, maintaining pricing discipline and a focus on medium-term profitability.

‘We recognise that these are challenging times for many people, and we are committed to being there for them when they need us the most, delivering good service and competitively priced products while also actively managing our costs.’

Admiral shares were the FTSE 100 Index’s top performer by early Wednesday afternoon, rising by 6.6 per cent, or 146p, to £23.45.

They have still slumped by over a third from their peak in summer 2021 when the firm was buoyed by a growing customer base and a drop in car accidents from people travelling less often.

Trading has inevitably struggled since then as the end of Covid-related restrictions encouraged Britons to take more journeys.

Matt Britzman, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Conditions are likely to remain tough over the rest of the year, but Admiral should be able to continue its string of outperformance versus peers with selective underwriting and strong pricing power.

‘The group’s also been very prudent with reserves in recent years, now sitting on a good chunk of excess which should be unwound into profits over the next few years.’

Aviva also released half-year results on Wednesday, showing operating profits increasing amidst soaring demand for private health insurance as Britons sought to beat record NHS waiting lists.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has boosted its annual guidance following a bumper performance during the first half of the year.

The anchor bottler revealed operating profits more than doubled to €557.3million (£480million) for the six months ending June, despite consumer weakness and higher energy and ingredients costs.

Rising prices helped the firm’s net sales revenue surpass €5billion, with organic revenue growing by 17.8 per cent and a further boost provided by the consolidation of its Russian business.

Drink up: Coca-Cola HBC revealed operating profits more than doubled to €557.3million for the six months ending June despite widespread cost-of-living pressures 

Turnover across all market segments increased by double-digit percentage levels, offsetting unfavourable foreign exchange movements and a drop in organic volumes caused largely by softer demand in the stills category.

It also expects the cost of goods sold per unit case to expand by a high-single-digit percentage, down from an initial forecast in the ‘low teens’. 

Consequently, the group now anticipates full-year organic sales growth in the ‘mid-teens’, compared to a prior forecast of 5 to 6 per cent.

The blue-chip company has maintained its annual earnings outlook, which it raised last month after seeing a ‘stronger than anticipated finish’ to the first-half of the year.

Zoran Bogdanovic, chief executive of Coca-Cola HBC, said on Wednesday: ‘It has been a very good first half of the year with progress across our strategic pillars.’

He added: ‘While some markets continue to face a challenging consumer environment, revenue per case has been improved through careful price and mix management enhanced by data, insights and analytics.

‘At the same time, volumes have remained resilient, which is testament to the quality of our execution.’

Headquartered in Switzerland but listed in London, Coca-Cola HBC packages and sells dozens of brands, such as Fanta, Fuze Tea, Costa Coffee, and Powerade, across 29 countries.

The business traces its origins back to 1950s Nigeria but was forged in its present form in 2000 through the merger of Coca-Cola Beverages and the Hellenic Bottling Company.

Though known mainly for selling soft drinks, the firm has been expanding its presence into the alcoholic drinks sector, recently agreeing to spend $220million (£172million) acquiring Brown-Forman Finland, the owner of premium vodka brand Finlandia.

It believes the takeover will enhance its premium spirits offering and strengthen partnerships with customers in ‘strategically important’ channels, including the hotel, restaurant and catering industries.

Neil Shah, the director of content and strategy at Edison Group, said: ‘The continued consumer demand for Coca-Cola HBC’s products has helped the bottler not only weather the difficult macroeconomic climate of recent months, but thrive in it.

‘Moreover, the company benefits from the ongoing roll-out of new products, such as Jack Daniel’s & Coca-Cola, which enjoy the advantages of immediate brand recognition that isn’t available to other new drinks on the market.’

Coca-Cola HBC shares were 1.5 per cent, or 34p, higher at £22.94 on Wednesday morning and have grown by approximately 19 per cent since the start of the year.

Markets are pricing in two more interest rate hikes this year in yet more misery for struggling mortgage borrowers.

The Bank of England raised rates by a widely expected 0.25 percentage points yesterday, with some observers thinking there might be another ‘shock and awe’ 0.5 per cent increase.

Traders are now pencilling in another 0.25 per cent rise in September and another in November or December, taking rates to 5.75 per cent. Analysts at Investec predicted a peak of 5.75 per cent this year.

But investment bank ING forecast 5.5 per cent, saying a second 0.25 per cent hike towards the end of the year would ‘largely depend’ on whether inflation in the services sector had slowed.

Yesterday’s increase was greeted with relief by the markets – avoiding a half-point rise provided a sign the central bank was less troubled by the outlook for inflation.

Latest hike: The Bank of England – led by governor Andrew Bailey (pictured) – raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points yesterday in a move that was widely expected

Sterling slipped following the announcement by the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which voted six to three for the increase in rates to 5.25 per cent, their highest since 2008. 

Two dissenters backed a 0.5 per cent hike and one voted to leave rates at 5 per cent.

The pound initially dropped to a five-week low of around $1.262 against the dollar but recovered to around $1.265. 

On the bond markets, yields on UK gilts fell, meaning the Government is likely to find it cheaper to borrow.

The FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.4 per cent, or 32.47 points, at 7,529.16. But the more UK-focused FTSE 250, which is more exposed to the effects of higher interest rates, closed up 0.1 per cent, or 20.77 points, at 18,833.65.

Economists had been divided about how aggressive the Bank would be, with around a third having predicted a 0.5 per cent hike similar to the one in June.

But traders pared their bets on further rises following the emergence of the divided opinion among the members of the MPC.

‘The vote split indicated we are nearing the peak now,’ Luke Hickmore, an investment director at Abrdn said.

But the Bank warned interest rates could remain higher for longer as inflation, which was recorded at 7.9 per cent for June, was still well above its 2 per cent target.

The MPC said it would keep rates ‘sufficiently restrictive for sufficiently long’ to get inflation back down.

Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at financial services firm Ebury, noted the Bank was ‘set to raise rates more aggressively than its peers,’ with the likes of the US Federal Reserve having paused their own rate rises.

‘UK rates could remain higher for longer than in most other major nations,’ Ryan said, adding this would help strengthen the value of the pound.

Looking further ahead, Paul Dales, the chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said that the next big surprise would be ‘how fast rates fall in late 2024 and 2025’, particularly if the mounting cost of borrowing triggered a recession.

While the Bank of England did not predict an economic downturn, Governor Andrew Bailey said that growth was still ‘pretty sluggish’ although he maintained that bringing down inflation was ‘going to be good for growth going forwards’.

The Bank cut its growth forecasts for next year and 2025.

For 2024, it expects UK gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 0.5 per cent, down from previous estimates of 0.75 per cent.

Sainsbury’s plans to make another £15million of price cuts on essential staples as millions of Britons continue to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.

Britain’s second-most popular supermarket by sales said it would lower prices on its own-brand items, as well as goods like spaghetti, jams and honey, from Tuesday. 

The FTSE 100 grocer’s ‘happier and healthier’ whole chicken breast fillets will also be price-matched with discount chain Aldi, while Freefrom pasta will cost the same for customers as regular pasta.

Discounts: Britain’s second-most popular supermarket by sales said it would lower prices on its own-brand items, as well as goods like spaghetti, jams and honey, from Tuesday

Sainsbury’s has already announced price reductions on hundreds of items across a wide range of categories this year, many of them as part of its recently-launched Nectar Prices loyalty scheme.

Other goods to have decreased in price in recent months include toilet paper, tuna, bread, butter, and dairy products like soft cheeses, yoghurts and cream.

Food and non-alcoholic drink inflation in the UK totalled 18.4 per cent for the 12 months ending May 2023, slightly below the previous month but far above historical levels and more than double the consumer prices inflation of 8.7 per cent.

Supermarkets are coming under pressure to reduce prices to help Britons struggling with soaring energy bills and a more expensive weekly shop.

Earlier this month, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer announced price cuts on dozens of items, such as minced beef, yoghurt, and chickpeas, while Asda instigated a price freeze on more than 500 products until August.

But grocery firms have faced accusations of ‘profiteering’, something they have resolutely denied, often by citing their slim profit margins.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is to meet the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the watchdogs for the energy, water and communications sectors on Wednesday to ask whether there is a profiteering problem in their industries and what they are doing about it.

Ministers are also talking to the food industry about ‘potential measures to ease the pressure on consumers,’ Mr Hunt has confirmed.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters on Monday that the meeting on Wednesday will see them discuss ‘what actions the regulators are taking, what more we could do working together, are there any potential barriers to them going further’.

The spokesperson acknowledged there is ‘no legal requirement’ for supermarkets to pass on savings but added: ‘There are rules around things like profiteering – I’m not suggesting that’s the case here.

‘Equally, I think we would, of course, want supermarkets and others to rightly pass on the savings they are making with the fall in global energy costs. I think that’s what the public would expect, and they will vote with their feet if that’s not the case.’

Sainsbury’s shares were 2.45 per cent higher at 263.5p on late Monday afternoon, making them the strongest performer on the FTSE 100 Index.