BUZZ-Sainsbury: earnings beat sees shares extend recent rally
** Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) +1.6%, 4th-top FTSE 100 riser
** H1 PBT £308 mln v £293 mln expected (v £375 mln YoY)
** Cost savings ahead of plan; now expects savings of c£225 mln by end of this financial yr
** Stock +20% since issuing encouraging guidance end-September
** SBRY has shown greater resilience to the rise of German discounters than its big four rivals, helped by the continued expansion of its convenience store estate
** SBRY +10.5% YTD (until Tues close), v Tesco -7.3% and Wm Morrison -13.4%
** SBRY 2nd-most borrowed stock on the FTSE 100, with c.15% of its shares outstanding on loan, behind Morrisons (late to move into better-performing parts of mkt, convenience stores & online), according to Markit (NasdaqGS: MRKT - news) data (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)