Market report: Friday close

By MALCOLM WITHERS
Updated:

 

THE expiry of the quarterly futures and options contracts came and went without too much fuss today, with the Footsie moving within a range of 20 points.

It was all a bit different from exactly a year ago when it jumped up and down by 300 points, leading to crashed computers and a pointed warning from the Financial Services Authority. That appears to have been effective judging by the past three witching hours, including today's, which have been calmer affairs.

London markets suffered irregular bouts of profit-taking leaving the FTSE 100 down 57.7 points at 4257.

Institutions were selling Xstrata following the decision by major shareholder Glencore International to issue bonds worth $600m (£371m) that are convertible to the mining giant's equity. Glencore has agreed a six-month lock-up of its 40% holding in Xstrata, but as soon as the market opened Xstrata shot to the top of the Footsie fallers with a 12 1/2p setback. It ended down 13p at 521p. Volume was running at 22m shares.

EMI's hopes of a merger of its music division with Time Warner drove its shares up 5 3/4p to 158p. Reopened talks between the two groups prompted the interest.

Lehman Brothers initiated coverage of Compass Group, setting a target price of 420p and adopting an overweight stance on the shares. Compass responded with an initial rise of 3p before falling back 6p to 358p.

Human resources software firm OneClick has said it will raise capital to fund the launch of a new product next year. Herald Investment Trust is to subscribe £625,000 of unsecured loan stock in the company. The consortium will be able to subscribe to 8.4m shares. OneClick added 1 1/4p to 8 1/4p.

US bid hopes again spurred interest in Spirent, up 5p at 61 1/4p, as volume of 35m was added to yesterday's 46m turnover. Market gossip is America's Agilent Technologies will make a 70p cash bid.

Another British company to launch a US advertising campaign this autumn is Aga Foodservice, which makes the range cookers beloved of townies seeking a country style. It hopes to more than double sales of Aga cookers to 2000 by next year. Its shop in Knightsbridge, just around the corner from Harrods, has received an enormous amount of interest from US tourists. Aga rose 5 1/2p to 227p.

First-time institutional interest in marketing services and communications group Creston followed its placing and open offer on a one-for-four basis of 5.3m shares at 86p a share to raise £4.56m. The cash will be used to take the group into public relations with the acquisition of Nelson Bostock communications, whose blue-chip client list includes Toshiba, Yell and Canon. Creston shares moved ahead 3p to 95 1/2p despite the 8% discount on its new shares.

Reuters rallied 1/2p to 243 1/2p as Commerzbank forecast its cost savings would revive margins and earnings. Positive results from Phase II trials of Alizyme's obesity drug ATL-96 gave it a 34 1/4p boost to 114 1/2p. The shift from the main market to AIM as a cost-cutting move left Alkane Energy shares 1/4p weaker at 12 1/4p.

• Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.

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