Asda remains the cheapest retailer in the run up to Christmas - but Tesco put up a strong fight, consigning Morrisons, the usual runner up, to third place. Asda's £41.79 basket, which was just 35p cheaper than Tesco's, boasted seven of the cheapest items on the list including: After Eights, which were on promotion at £2.00, 39p less than at Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco; Cathedral City Cheddar at £1.68, at least 9p cheaper than elsewhere; and HP Sauce, which was on offer for 99p compared with £1.28 at its rivals. However, though it offered some of the biggest price differentials on the list, it offset some of these by ramping up the prices of a number of items including long grain rice and Amoy Straight to Wok Noodles by 22p and 27p respectively. Tesco, meanwhile, closed the gap with Asda and overtook Morrisons to clinch second place after lowering the prices of a number of products. Its biggest price cut was £1.01 off white seedless grapes, making them the cheapest on the list. It also reduced its Wall's sausages from £1.83 to £1.55 and took 22p off its long-grain rice. However, its promotion on Nestlé Shreddies ended this week, which resulted in a 99p rise to £1.99. Unlike Asda andTesco, Morrisons did not make any price cuts that affected this week's list and dropped to third place. It offered the cheapest long-grain rice, but raised the price of HP Sauce by 28p. Sainsbury's made no price changes at all on this week's shopping list. It largely matched the cheaper retailers' prices on branded items but lost out because of their promotions. The higher-priced retailers have swapped places again after Somerfield implemented two key price hikes. Waitrose took fifth place with a £50.04 basket that contained the cheapest Warburtons loaf. Somerfield, however, raised the price of beef braising steak by 83p and HP Sauce by 29p. It also offered 19 of the list's priciest items compared with Waitrose, which offered eight.

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