Brandes, the US activist fund manager, sold almost its entire stake in J Sainsbury on the same day that Delta (Two), the Qatari-based group, increased its shareholding in the supermarket group to 25 per cent.

Brandes reduced its 7.65 per cent shareholding in Sainsbury's to just 0.88 per cent on Friday when Delta (Two) spent £734 million increasing its holding from 17.4 per cent to 25 per cent, above the combined 18 per cent stake held by the Sainsbury family.

It has also emerged today that Deutsche Bank has raised its shareholding in Sainsbury's to 3.05 per cent.

Brandes and Deutsche disclosed their shareholdings as Sainsbury's revealed it had made a strong start to the year, with first-quarter like-for-like sales up 5.1 per cent. Analysts had been expecting an increase of 5.3 per cent.

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Justin King, chief executive at Sainsbury's, refused to confirm or deny if his management had held talks with Delta (Two), stating: "We never comment on individual shareholder conversations."

The company said today that total sales over the 12 weeks to June 16 rose by 5.7 per cent and, excluding fuel, by 6.7 per cent.

Despite the 5.1 per cent rise in like-for-like sales falling slightly below analysts' expectations, Sainsbury's made a more positive start to its year compared to Tesco, which yesterday blamed rising interest rates and subdued non-food sales for its lacklustre first-quarter performance, particularly in the UK, which sent the company's shares 5 per cent lower to 434.5p.

Shares in Sainsbury's rose from 581p to 585.5p.

Tesco said like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, rose by 4.7 per cent and, including fuel, by 3.4 per cent.

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