Market report: Thursday close

By MALCOLM WITHERS
Updated:

 

BETTER-than-expected figures from the world's two biggest companies, General Electric and Microsoft, as well as US market bellwether techs Motorola and Yahoo! gave London shares a much-needed boost.

But there were plenty of cynics around to describe the FTSE 100 rise as a squeeze on the many bears in the market. An opening surge on Wall Street helped the Footsie close 89.7 points 5481.6.

Yesterday's villains became today's heroes as ARM Holdings rose 27p gain to 232p, Sage Group put on 10p to 217 1/2p and Colt Telecom gained 11p to 400p. Even Marconi bounced 5 1/4p to 111 3/4p, though a letter to shareholders encompassed the thoughts of the stale bulls by saying it hoped to 'benefit from the market upturn when it occurs'.

Telecoms regained some of the ground they lost following yesterday's raid on some of their offices by European Commission officials seeking evidence of alleged price-fixing. Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phones operator, rallied 6p to 151p with support from Bear Stearns, and BT added 28 1/2p to 470p. They provided some relief to the market, though dealers were still complaining about the 'dreadfully' low over-all market volume of around one billion shares. They almost universally believe the FTSE's rally will be short-lived.

The spring cold snap raised doubts about Cadbury Schweppes soft drink sales ahead of its first-half results next week and its shares were 8p flatter at 467p.

Iceland continued to rally with just under a million shares changing hands, but ended up shading 3/4p to finish at 160p.

Emap's profits warning about first-half figures, issued at its annual meeting, left it down 6p at 718p while electrical group Volex shocked with an 87 1/2p slump to a 12-month low of 472 1/2p after Beeson Gregory issued a sell note. At the beginning of the year, the shares were 2155p.

Clearing all the dumped cars on the streets of London and other refuse service contracts could soon be in the hands of Jacobs Holding. Its stock moved ahead 2 3/4p to 16p with the enduring asset of its £25m dock and shipyard at Dartford to underpin the share price.

Ahead of results soon, business support group Ashtead gained 1p to 95 1/2p.

The release of Hollywood movie Tomb Raider has got the computer games bores buzzing. They are believed to have revived interest in intrepid heroine Lara Croft and raised hopes that Eidos will return to profit this year. Its shares gained 12%, or 24 1/4p, to 244 1/2p.

Plastics and vinyl group Chapelthorpe added 1/2p to 13 1/2p, having risen from its low of 10 1/2p earlier this month on buyout hopes.

Torotrak, whose revolutionary gear-boxes could put US gas guzzlers made by General Motors into super-economy mode, motored 7 1/2p to 202 1/2p as its first production models were shipped to America.

• 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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