UK managers shun Tesco despite relief rally

Tesco's share price rise this morning has failed to tempt UK equity managers to buy in to the troubled retailer, with leading investors continuing to avoid the stock and the wider sector.

The supermarket giant's full-year results this morning showed a 6% drop in annual profits to £3.3bn, while like-for-like sales fell by 1.4%. Dismal as they may be, the results were better than analysts - already pre-warned of troubles by Tesco's management in a series of recent bearish statements - had forecast. As a result shares, which have been trading around a 10-year low in recent weeks, were up 2.4% to 293.15p by mid-afternoon, having climbed as much as 5% initially this morning. But while the company did enough to beat forecasts of a 10% decline in profits from some analysts...