The picture was marginally better at its core Somerfield chain, where the 0.7 per cent fall in underlying sales was an improvement on the 1.2 per cent slide during its second half.The company revealed it had called in management consultants to review its business, sparking concern in the City about its prospects should neither bid materialise. Group like-for-like sales fell 2.7 per cent in the past nine weeks, dragged down by a 6.4 per cent decline in comparable store sales at Kwik Save. Barclays Capital is thought to be leading an attempt to get Baugur, the Icelandic investor caught up in fraud charges, ejected from the consortium bidding for Somerfield, the UK supermarket group. A bidding battle for the company risks being derailed because Baugur's partners in its consortium - Apax Partners, Barclays Capital and Robert Tchenguiz, the property tycoon - are worried about its involvement in the light of charges facing Baugur's chief executive Jon Asgeir Johannesson in his home country. Barclays Capital declined to comment last night and all Somerfield would say about bid talks was that they were at an "advanced stage".Fears that the consortium, which is bidding against London & Regional, could end up pulling out overshadowed full-year results from Somerfield that showed underlying group sales in freefall at its Kwik Save chain. "Some driving to work in the capital every day could save £2,000 a year," one executive said So far Toyota has sold 350,000 Prius models worldwide.
The hybrid technology has just been introduced on the new top-of-the-range Lexus RX400.Separately, Toyota announced that its Burnaston car plant near Derby had been chosen as the site for its new £11.6m European production training centre.. The petrol engine only kicks in when the driver begins to speed up.Because of its green technology, the Prius is exempt from the congestion charge in central London and Toyota believes the increase in the charge from £5 to £8 could generate even more interest in the Prius. But Toyota executives believe they could sell as many as 5,000 if there was a bigger allocation from Japan. Prince Charles is about to take delivery of one of the £20,000 cars, which do 67 miles to the gallon on the urban cycle thanks to their twin petrol and electric engines. Traders were cock-a-hoop, and amusing photographs showing piles of half price "Paris 2012" T-shirts pinged across dealing rooms.The FTSE 100 extended its recent winning streak for the seventh day in a row.
Shares in Quintain Estates & Development, which owns land around the Millennium Dome, where badminton and gymnastics will be held, rose 4 per cent, while leisure, catering, transport and media companies also got an immediate boost.The general mood of euphoria which swept the City added to the bullish performance of the market. At speeds of under 15mph the car works on its electric engine, producing no harmful emissions at all, while the engine switches off automatically when the car is stationary. It was above 5,200 for the first time in three years when the market opened yesterday morning, and continued its advance throughout the day. At last night's close of 5,229.6, it stood at its highest level since May 2002 and had risen almost 200 points since last Monday - in large measure because of the benefits of the rising oil price to BP and Shell, two of its largest constituents.Darren Winder, an equity strategist at UBS, said: "Although 2012 is a long way away, the economic growth, the additional employment and the boost to some areas of the market are a clear positive. All this is adding to what is still a very favourable profit picture for UK companies."A poll of East End estate agents said that 40 per cent of them had experienced an upswing in interest yesterday afternoon..