BUSINESS LIVE: Retail sales fall; Sainsbury's dumps bank sale plans;

UK retail sales dropped by 0.2 per cent in September, adding to signs of weakness in the recovery and bucking economists’ expectations of growth.

Office for National Statistics data released on Friday shows retail sales volume was 1.3 per cent lower than at the same time last year, but 4.2 per cent higher than prior to the first UK lockdown in February 2020.

Sainsbury’s has ended discussions about selling its banking operation after concluding that approaches it first received in November 2020 did not offer good value for shareholders, the supermarket group has said.

‘Whilst the board of Sainsbury’s believe that it was in the best interests of shareholders to explore these expressions of interest, it has concluded that these do not offer better value for shareholders than will be realised through retaining Sainsbury’s Bank,” it explained.

Shares in crisis-hit Evergrande plunged in Hong Kong yesterday after the stock started trading again following a 17-day suspension.

Shares in the Chinese property giant, which is cracking under the weight of a £221billion debt pile, were suspended on 4 October after it said it may have found a buyer for Evergrande Property Services, one of its most profitable businesses.

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Sainsbury’s sad the offers it had received for its banking arm did not represent good value to shareholders