NEW YORK, Nov 25 - U.S. retail sales ticked up due to demand for staples such as food and drugs in the week before "Black Friday," the kickoff for the holiday shopping season, a report said on Tuesday. Sales rose 0.4 percent in the week ended Nov. 22, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS said in a joint report, compared with a 0.8 percent fall in the preceding week. Compared with the previous year, sales for the week were up 5.6 percent. Warmer than usual weather left demand for winter wear spotty, but shoppers stocked up on food items and pharmaceuticals. BTM/UBS held firm to its November comparable store sales growth estimate of at least 4 percent on a year-over-year basis, but cautioned that "'Black Friday' and the subsequent weekends' performance is not necessarily any indication of how the overall season will finish," the report said. The BTM/UBS Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot is compiled from a group of major discount, department and chain stores across the country that report their weekly results. The index measures sales growth with the year 1977 equaling 100.||