By Ian Walker

LONDON--J. Sainsbury PLC's (SBRY.LN) market share remained static at 16.2% in the latest survey compiled by Kantar Worldpanel, as it gained 250,000 new shoppers in the 12 weeks to Sept. 13, and was the only one of the big four U.K. supermarket chains to boost sales in the period.

The number three grocer by market share boosted sales 0.9% to 4.01 billion pounds ($6.22 billion), according to Kantar, which monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 25,000 demographically representative households in the U.K.

Number one retailer Tesco PLC's (TSCO.LN) market share fell to 28.2% over the 12 weeks, compared with 28.8% in the comparable period ended Sept. 14, 2014. Tesco sales were down 1% over the period at GBP6.98 billion.

Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), saw its market share fall to 16.7%, from 17.3% for the comparable 12 weeks, with sales 2.9% lower at GBP4.12 billion.

Once again up-market store Waitrose and German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to grow market share and sales. Aldi and Lidl's combined market share rose to 9.8% in the 12 weeks ended Sept. 13, compared with 8.4% in the year-earlier period. Aldi sales have risen 17.3% to GBP1.38 billion, while Lidl's sales are up 16% at GBP1.03 billion.

Waitrose sales over the period rose 2.9% to GBP1.3 billion and its market share was up 5.2%, from 5.1% in the comparable 12 weeks last year.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC's (MRW.LN) market share slipped to 10.7% from 10.9%, while sales were 1.4% lower at GBP2.64 billion.

"With shoppers moving their custom away from the traditional, larger-size supermarket stores, online sales are continuing to boom and are up by 12% compared with a year ago," Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel said.

"Almost 7% of grocery sales are currently purchased through the Internet and existing online supermarkets will be watching closely to see when Amazon Fresh will launch in the U.K. and whether it will steal market share or grow the online market even further," he said.

-Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2015 05:19 ET (09:19 GMT)

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