Shares in most of Britain’s top supermarket groups rose on Thursday, helped by a surge in Tesco as investors welcomed Tesco’s restructuring plans, but Marks & Spencer fell after a weak trading update.

Tesco rose 5 per cent, lifting the shares of rivals such as Sainsbury and WM Morrison.

However, M&S shares were down 2.4 per cent after it posted a worse-than-expected 5.8 per cent drop in underlying sales of clothing, gifts and homeware over Christmas.