Shares in Britain's leading supermarket group, Tesco plc, fell more than 5 per cent yesterday as analysts trimmed their profit forecasts after a round of meetings with the company. Tesco owns the Quinnsworth/Crazy Prices chain in Ireland.

Analysts, who attended briefings on Wednesday and yesterday said Tesco's sales had slowed, citing poor weather and a general slowdown in Britain's economy. Profit forecasts for this year were reduced by around 2 per cent and next year's estimates were cut by about 4 per cent.

"Tesco has confirmed that sales have been hit by poor weather," Merrill Lynch said in a note on the company, as it downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "accumulate".

It added that there had been losses to rivals J Sainsbury and Safeway, but other analysts pointed to a general slowdown in consumer demand. Merrill Lynch said Tesco's like-for-like sales growth had slowed in June and July to around 3 per cent and it was no longer outperforming the industry.