Asda sales fall as customers switch to supermarket rivals – as it happened

An Asda store in West London, Britain. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

4.37pm BST

European stock market close

And finally, London’s stock market has ended the day in the red, but up from its earlier lows.

The FTSE 100 has closed 22 points lower at 8144 points, down 0.27% today.

At one stage it was as low as 8064 points, a triple-digit drop, before recovering after the latest US jobless claims came in stronger than feared.

Insurance firm Beazley led the risers, up 10.7% after almost doubling its first-half profits to $728.9m this morning.

And that’s all for today. Goodnight! GW

4.10pm BST

Asda has also reported that its net debt was £3.9bn at the end of the second quarter of 2024, adding that it “remains fully committed to further deleveraging.”