Tesco sales continue to slide -Kantar

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Sales at Britain's Tesco

, the market leading grocer reeling from an accountancy

scandal, continued to slide over the last 12 weeks, although the

firm has at least stemmed the rate of decline, industry data

showed on Tuesday.

The data from market researcher Kantar Worldpanel showed

Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) 's sales fell 3.6 percent in the 12 weeks to Oct. 12.

Though that performance was still the worst of Britain's so

called "big four" grocers, it was Tesco's best figure since June

and compared to a fall of 4.5 percent reported by Kantar in its

September report.

Tesco's market share was 28.8 percent in the latest period,

down from 30.1 percent in the same period last year.

The grocer's shares, which have halved over the last year,

were up 2.5 percent at 0931 GMT.

Tesco is due to publish interim results and an update on its

probe into a 250 million pounds ($404 million) profit

mis-statement on Thursday.

Analysts expect the firm to report sales at stores open over

a year, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, down about 6 percent

for its second quarter to Aug. 23.

Tesco Chief Executive Dave Lewis said in a memo to staff

last Friday that the firm's recent performance in food "has been

one of our strongest for a very long time."

The Kantar data showed overall market growth of 0.7 percent,

with like-for-like prices down 0.2 percent, pushing the grocery

market into deflation.

"Extensive price cutting by some supermarkets in a bid to

win the price war means that customers are saving on everyday

items such as vegetables and milk," said Fraser McKevitt,

Kantar's head of retail and consumer insight.

Of the big four, Wal-Mart's Asda was the winner with

sales growth of 1.0 percent. Sales at Sainsbury's and

Morrisons fell 3.1 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.

Among the discounters Aldi's growth slowed

slightly compared to recent months, but its sales were still up

27.3 percent. Lidl's sales grew by 18.1 percent.

Market share and sales (percent) - Kantar Worldpanel

12 wks to 12 wks to pct change

Oct 12 2014 Oct 13 2013 in sales

Tesco 28.8 30.1 -3.6

Asda 17.3 17.2 1.0

Sainsbury 16.1 16.7 -3.1

Morrison 11.0 11.2 -1.8

Co-operative 6.4 6.4 -0.4

Waitrose 5.2 4.9 6.8

Aldi 4.8 3.8 27.3

Lidl 3.5 3.0 18.1

Iceland 1.9 2.0 -0.7

(Reporting by James Davey, additional reporting by Paul Sandle,

editing by Louise Heavens)