BUZZ-UK grocers: Big Four feeling the heat
** Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) among top UK blue-chip fallers, with Morrison & Tesco also on back foot as JPMorgan trims TPs & estimates for the trio
** Broker flags confirmation Britain's "Big Four" supermarkets have all lost market share in a barely growing grocery market as implied by recent Kantar data
** JPM cuts TPs for both Sainsbury & Morrison to 200p v 225p & for Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) to 160p vs 175p
** Adjusts margin forecasts to reflect double impact from the declining sales densities combined with cost inflation (wages in particular). Resulting downgrades to JPM 2016e operating profit: Tesco -6%, Morrison -5% and Sainsbury -4%
** Cyclical factor adding to pressure created by acceleration of discounters -- i.e the UK currently has the worst of all combinations: top-line deflation combined with cost inflation (rents, wages, pension)
** Says Big 4 should be more impacted than discounters by cost inflation given their bigger overall cost base (e.g. Aldi personnel + depreciation + rents combined amount to c9% of sales vs Tesco above 15%) (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)