Market report: Tuesday close

By JAMES MCLEAN
Updated:

 

LONDON shares swiftly recovered from the Government's decision to block the proposed Lloyds TSB and Abbey National merger. Buyers took advantage of the widely expected ruling to buy discounted banking shares, which fell sharply in the immediate aftermath of the verdict.

Abbey shares, which briefly sank to 1158p, made up ground to close down 7p at 1173p while Lloyds, which swiftly made public its irritation at the decision, insisted its growth prospects were healthy and added 1p to 670p.

Other banking shares repaired to earlier highs, with Barclays adding 30p to 2075p, Royal Bank of Scotland up 24p to 1559p, Alliance & Leicester advancing 9p to 800p and Halifax advancing 1p to 775p.

An early slide on Wall Street wiped mid-session gains off the FTSE 100, down 1 point at 5467.9.

Power supply specialist Chloride issued a profits warning, blaming a severe downturn in the telecoms and semiconductor sectors, though it rose 2p to 85p. But telecoms and technology shares generally took heart from rising consolidation prospects with Colt Telecom adding 28p to 425p, Vodafone rising 1p to 153 3/4p, British Telecom gaining 3 1/4p to 459p and Cable & Wireless advancing 3 1/2p to 378p. Buyers were also in for chip designer ARM, up 5 1/4p to 214 1/4p, while Logica regained some of Monday's losses with a 26p leap to 706p.

AstraZeneca, up 27p to 3317p, was among the pick of the defensive stocks, which were otherwise mixed, with energy shares unnerved by falling oil prices as Iraq is set to resume exports. BG Group, down 8p to 280p, and Shell, off 6 1/2p to 579 1/2p, were hit by downgrades, while BP dropped 9p to 567 1/2p.

ABN Amro questioned results from Safeway, down 9 1/2p to 373p, and stuck by its sell recommendation as 'recovery to date has been of a lower quality than is generally perceived'. That was symptomatic of wider falls in the sector with Tesco losing 2p to 253p and Sainsbury's off 7p to 427p.

Cambridge-based software outfit Autonomy topped the FTSE 250 losers, shedding 26 1/2p to 355 1/2p as it again warned of impending order deferrals. Investors in hard-pressed internet software group Baltimore Technologies celebrated chief executive Fran Rooney's decision to fall on his sword as its shares rose 6p to 25p, while automotive parts innovator Torotrak added 30p to 201p after making its first sample product shipment to General Motors.

• 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.

The Daily Mail's Geoff Foster on yesterday's trade

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