Wm Morrison, Britain's fourth largest supermarket, has grown its share of Britain's grocery trade to a record high of 12.1 per cent in the past three months, according to the latest closely-watched survey figures.

The figures, produced by TNS Worldpanel, a retail consultant, show that Morrison's market share grew year-on year at twice the rate of the rest of the market. It stood at 12.1 per cent for the three months to 29 November against 11.7 per cent in the same period last year.

However, Marc Bolland, its chief executive who has largely been credited with the supermarket chain's turnaround, has since stepped down to become the boss of Marks & Spencer to replace Sir Stuart Rose. Mr Bolland was expected to stay on at Morrisons until January. However, last week, Morrison's board asked him to step down.

Asda and J Sainsbury also grew their market share to 17 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively while Tesco, the market leader, has remained flat at 30.6 per cent, after market share loss throughout 2008 and 2009.

All appear to have benefited customers' returning to premium products and easing back on bargain hunting during the recession, said TNS.

The "hard discount" sector including Aldi, Lidl and Netto is stagnant with no year-on-year market share growth, it said.

"If the current trend continues through December, the UK’s grocery sector will shortly see an end to recessionary purchasing behaviour," said Edward Garner, communications director at TNS Worldpanel: “The market is seeing several signs that indicate that an end to the recessionary buying behaviour that has characterised the last year is imminent."

Premium ranges – particularly Tesco Finest – are in growth, TNS said. It said Tesco's flat market share performance was not a bad outcome, considering that its recent aggressive promotions might have been expected to cut its share of takings.

Grocery price inflation was now down to 2.8 per cent, TNS calculates, indicating that shoppers are now under much less pressure to trade down.

The figures seemed to be reflected in Tesco's third quarter trading update today which showed that comparative sales had grown a modest 2.8 per cent, a little below forecasts for 3 per cent growth.

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