THE DAILY BRIEFING

TOP STORE Discounter Lidl raced ahead to boast the highest sales growth of all the major supermarkets in the 12 weeks to February 24 to total 14.8pc, according to data from Nielsen. Lidl’s market share increased to 5.4pc from 4.9pc a year earlier, while sainsbury’s had the weakest sales growth of 0.8pc.

REVENUE HIKE sales at Co-op have returned to growth for the first time since July 2017. Kantar Worldpanel revealed Co-op’s sales edged up by 0.4pc in the 12 weeks to February 24 after selling 300 shops to convenience store chain McColl’s.

STAFF BOOST shop workers at Sainsbury’s have been handed an hourly pay increase from £8 to £9.20 per hour. Employees working in Zones 1 and 2 of London will be paid £9.80 per hour. But the supermarket is getting rid of staff bonuses and paid breaks for in-store workers.

LOSSES BLOW Miner Sirius Minerals, which is developing a polyhalite mine in North Yorkshire, made a loss of £24m last year as it works to get its Woodsmith Mine up and running by 2021. The firm went public last year joining the FTsE 250 and has supply agreements signed worth 4.4m per year.

EARNINGS UP Profits at product-tester Intertek rose 9.5pc to £438m. Last year it bought german fuel testing business KJ Tech services and Us security firm Acumen security. It is recommending a 47.8p per share final dividend, bringing the total pay-out for the year to 71.3p, a 41.3pc increase on last year.

GEM SALES Anglo-Americanowned diamond firm De Beers sold £399m worth of diamonds during its second sales cycle of 2018, about £1.4m more than last year.

RICH RAIDERS Politicians in Germany are considering a so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions in a blow for the country’s financial sector. As part of a coalition deal, the ruling parties agreed at the weekend to introduce a substantial tax every time a share, bond or other asset is sold.

RED RISING Communist rulers in China are targeting growth of 6.5pc again this year and continuing their efforts to make the financial system more stable. Last year, growth exceeded the target to hit 6.9pc.

LENDING RUSH Investment firms are lending to businesses as the big banks scale back due to red tape, according research firm Preqin.