Every little helps, so Tesco’s mantra goes, but it wasn't quite enough in the first quarter, so it would appear. Just like its shoppers, it seems that even the intergalactic supermarket monster is feeling the pinch of the dip in consumer spending, as rising energy and mortgage costs bite.

While its first quarter trading statement released today looks, on the face of it, pretty respectable, with group sales for the thirteen weeks to 24^th May up by 13.7 per cent, Tesco shares opened down almost 3 per cent at 391.4p today.

To be fair, the wider market is also down this morning, with the FTSE100 unfortunately once again below the all-important 6,000 mark to 5,870 following fears about the spectre of higher interest rates. But while chief executive Terry Leahy told investors that Tesco made “solid progress” in the UK and “coped well” with the “more cautious mood on non-food spending”, some analysts are concerned that the like-for-like sales growth of 3.5 per cent (excluding petrol) Tesco achieved during the first quarter is lower than that initially seen in the first five weeks of the period (4 per cent) and that reported by Morrison’s last week (7 per cent).

However, analysts at Citigroup say this apparent slowdown is “slightly deceptive”. Analyst James Anstead at the investment bank points out that like-for-likes in the first five weeks of the quarter were helped by easy comparisons from the fuel contamination crisis during the same period last year. So Mr Anstead argues that investors should view any weakness in the shares today – ie. a dip below £4 - as a buying opportunity. The shares are already down 11 per cent over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, worryingly, Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index, reckons that the gyrations of the FTSE100 remind him “more and more” of the bear market in 2001 and 2002, during which there were sharp and sudden rallies, which would then disappear the following morning when the market would dip once again.

Oh dear! It's tin hat time once again.

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