Asda Q3 sales down 5.8 percent

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Asda, the British supermarket arm of U.S. giant Wal-Mart, reported another sharp drop in quarterly underlying sales on Thursday.

The grocer, which brought in a new chief executive in July, said sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, fell 5.8 percent in the three months to end September, its ninth straight quarter of decline.

That third-quarter performance did however mark a slight improvement on the 7.5 percent fall recorded in the previous quarter - its worst ever result.

Asda, Britain's third biggest supermarket behind Tesco , Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's and ahead of Morrisons, has been hit by the advance of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

While the other three traditional groups have upped their game in recent years, Asda is still struggling to attract shoppers in the highly competitive market. (Reporting by Kate Holton, Editing by Paul Sandle)