Maybe it’s the Jamie Oliver factor. Perhaps Tesco was just not helping enough. Whatever the reason, the latest grocery sales data seem to show that J Sainsbury is winning market share from its bigger rival.

Figures collated by Nielsen revealed that the big four supermarkets enjoyed healthy sales growth in the 12 weeks to just after Easter. But Sainsbury’s sales grew by 7 per cent, while Tesco’s were up by only 4.4 per cent.

Alastair Johnston, a JPMorgan analyst, said that Tesco’s pickup in sales growth in the first six weeks of its year was not sustainable and would erode, with inflation hitting zero by the end of the year. The American arm was likely to be loss-making for some time.

On the other hand, he said, Sainsbury’s has been showing rising sales momentum in recent months and was his top pick.

Tesco, also afflicted by going ex dividend, shed 4.9p to 343p, one of only nine fallers in the FTSE 100, while Sainsbury’s, which Nielsen said had been the best perfomer in the Easter season, edged up another 7p to 330¼p, making a 20p gain in the past week, also helped by speculation that the Qataris would bring their 27 per cent stake up to 29.9 per cent.

A morning recovery in the FTSE 100 accelerated when Wall Street opened positively with investors focusing on government figures showing a rise in consumer spending. The London index clawed back the past two days of swine flu-related falls and more, closing up 93.19 at 4,189.59.

Banks, mining and oil stocks drove much of the rebound as oil and metals prices similarly recovered. Copper prices jumped as the London Metal Exchange unveiled another drop in inventory levels as more of the metal was shipped to China. Royal Dutch Shell, up 29p at £15.39, also helped to improve sentiment with forecast-beating first-quarter results.

Kazakhmys, the copper miner with figures due today, gained 28½p to 511p, Anglo American rose 100p at £14.42 and Rio Tintoclimbed 163p to £26.81.

Peter Toeman, an analyst for HSBC, helped to lift the bank sector by upgrading his rating and target prices on Royal Bank of Scotland, up 4.1p to 36.8p, Lloyds, up 7.9p to 103½p, and Barclays, up 24¼p to 256½p, its highest level since last October, just before it agreed its Middle Eastern bailout. He said that there was now a return to certainty, with Barclays helped by defining the size of its needed write-down and Lloyds and RBS by the Government’s asset protection scheme, which has taken their riskiest investments off their balance sheets.

British Airways rose 5½p to 148.6p after Citigroup said that there could be a buying opportunity in European airline shares because airline prices recovered within a week after an initial fall induced by fears of Sars in 2003.

Home Retail Group lost 6¼p to 263¾p after the owner of Argos and Homebase posted a 24 per cent slide in profits in line with expectations. BSkyB rose 25p to 465p on the expectation of reassuring third-quarter earnings today. Novae, the Lloyd’s insurer, gained 12p to 362p.

— New York: The US Federal Reserve said that the pace of the American economic downturn appeared to be “somewhat slower” than it was a month ago. That was enough to embolden investors, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 168.78 points to close at 8,185.73.

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