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Citi has taken a slightly negative view of Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) and J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) after Morrisons' latest quarterly results, warning of intensifying competition among the big supermarkets. Morrisons, the privately owned grocer, reported like-for-like sales up 3.2% in the 13 weeks to 26 July, a measure that strips out the effect of new store space.

UBS has reiterated its 'buy' rating on Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO), keeping a 12-month price target of 545p and pointing to a share price return potential of 16.45%. Analysts Sreedhar Mahamkali and Angelo Mangieri made the call in a note dated 3 September, with shares trading at 468p at the time of writing.

Shares in Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) fell on Wednesday after Shore Capital downgraded Britain's largest supermarket group for the first time in more than three years, arguing the shares have run far enough for now. The stock was down 2.6% at 449.7p in late morning trading, valuing the FTSE 100 company at roughly £28 billion.

Shares in J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) and Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) nudged lower in morning trading after figures showed the heatwave continued to weigh on shopper numbers in July. Total UK footfall fell 2.1% on a year earlier, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Sensormatic, which tracks visitor numbers to retail locations.

Tesco PLC's (LSE:TSCO) new partnerships with Uber Eats and Deliveroo offer another route for the supermarket to expand its online business profitably, according to analysts at Citi. The UK's largest grocer said yesterday that it will launch on Uber Eats from August and join Deliveroo later in the summer, giving customers access to groceries through two of the UK's largest delivery platforms.