Asda has cut its fuel prices for the second times in five days, after a substantial reduction by Sainsbury threatened to undercut it.

On Monday Asda announced that it had set a new maximum national price on unleaded petrol and diesel of 131.7 pence per litre (ppl) and 137.7ppl respectively, while on Tuesday Tesco said it was cutting up to 2ppl from unleaded petrol and 1ppl from diesel. In addition Tesco is offering a voucher giving 5ppl off fuel for customers spending £50 in a week-long promotion ending on Sunday 29 September.

Sainsbury’s became the third of the big four supermarkets this week to announce cuts, reducing unleaded petrol by up to 6ppl and diesel by up to 4ppl from today.

It added that customers will pay no more than 129.9ppl for unleaded petrol and 136.9ppl for diesel across Sainsbury’s 286 forecourts. These maximum prices undercut the ones Asda announced on Monday by 1.8ppl on unleaded petrol, and 0.8ppl on diesel.

However, hours after Sainsbury’s announcement Asda said that from today it was cutting its maximum prices to 128.7ppl for unleaded petrol and 135.7ppl for diesel, 1.2ppl lower than the Sainsbury prices.