Tesco is on course to keep full-year pre-tax profits above the £1bn barrier.

The company told the City that it was confident of delivering results "broadly in line with the current consensus forecast".

Analysts are expecting Tesco to post annual pre-tax profits of about £1.2bn in the year to February 23.

Last year, the UK's biggest supermarket chain broke through the £1bn mark for the first time, with profits of £1.05bn.

Tesco will offer further details of its progress in meetings with City analysts over the next few days.

However, the market will have to wait until Tesco's results announcement on April 9 to discover the exact profits figure.