Terry Leahy bounced into the briefing room, looking extremely chirpy after his early morning spat, sorry interview, with Today on Radio 4. Sadly, very few of my media colleagues bothered to turn up to hear what the chief of the Tesco profit juggernaut had to say for himself. "A bit odd. I presume everybody's tied up with the aftermath of New York and all that," I said to a colleague from an American wireservice. "Naah," came the reply, "Tesco are just not newsworthy any more. They are expected to deliver record profits and they announce record profits. Where's the story?" Fair point, I suppose. "But," said my new friend, "What I really can't understand is why it is that when Tesco announces record profits, its share price always falls." And so it was: Tesco confirms its status as Britain's top retail chain and its shares fall by 4.5p in a day. I tried to explain to the poor fellow about defensive stocks and why they were attractive at a time of recession, which bumps up the price, but also makes them prone to profit-taking by investors, which depresses the price, as do underlying concerns about growth in some international markets. However, it soon became obvious to us both that I could provide no logical answer to his question so we joined the handful of hacks in the briefing instead. Ho hum. {{COUNTERPOINT }}

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