New Morrisons chief executive David Potts has bought £500,000 worth of shares in the company.

The move comes just a week after the company reported a 47 per cent slump in half-year pre-tax profits to £126 million and announced the closure of 11 more supermarkets, costing 900 jobs.

The company disclosed that Mr Potts bought 314,881 shares at a price per share of 158.79p, taking his total shareholding to 822,881 shares.

The share price has fallen by more than one fifth since the former Tesco executive took over in March.

He is paid a basic salary of £850,000 a year. He admitted last week that the supermarket faced a "long journey" to restore its fortunes.

Morrisons shares closed down 1.9p at 156.6p.