Shares in Tesco have fallen sharply, with traders pointing to rumours on the FT's Alphaville chatroom that a £3bn rights issue was being considered among plans to revive its fortunes.
A flurry of activity in Tesco shares saw their price fall by as much as 4.5%, wiping off some £1bn pounds off the company's market value, before recovering to trade down 3%.
"We can say with a degree of certainty that a rights issue, 3 billion pounds-ish probably, is among the options being considered," Financial Times UK equities reporter Bryce Elder said in the chatroom.
The supermarket retailer has lost some 15% of its value since it warned of a £250m overstatement of first-half profits last week.
Tesco declined to comment on the rumours.
Trading volume in the stock stood at around 83% of the 90-day daily average, against 35% for the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.
