Market report: Monday close

By MICKEY CLARK FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

IT HAS been a bad few days for Chelsea Village chairman Ken Bates, and if whispers circulating in the Square Mile are anything to go by, things can only get worse. Chelsea Village rose 7p to 43 1/2p, valuing the Premier League side at £72m.

Private businessman Peter Harrison is also vice-president of the club and says he wants to put together a consortium to make a 'sensible bid' for it. Harrison made almost £300m from the sale of his internet business Chernikeeff Networks and is thought to have won the backing for a bid from Ruth Gist, widow of late vice-chairman Matthew Harding. She speaks for about 21% of the shares, but any offer is certain to be fiercely resisted by the blunt Bates. He officially speaks for 17% of shares in the AIM-listed club, but is thought to control more than 50% overall.

After hitting a peak of 170p in 1997, shares in Chelsea Village rattled all the way back to a low of 31 1/2p last month. Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by London rivals Charlton Athletic at the weekend, severely dented any remaining hope of finishing high enough in the league to obtain a lucrative place in the Champions League. The rest of the market had a typical Monday feel to it, with share prices drifting easier throughout the day. The FTSE 100 index ended down 8 1/2p as Wall Street and Nasdaq opened lower this afternoon.

Broker Merrill Lynch arranged a telephone conference today with institutions on semiconductor stocks such as Intel. That left ARM Holdings nursing a fall of 33p at 329p. But Deutsche is tipping Diageo, up 19 1/2p at 714 1/2p, as its top buy in the European beverage sector with a 760p target price. Kingfisher fell 9p to 461p as Merrill Lynch turned increasingly bearish on the shares. It has lowered its recommendation from neutral to reduce and its target price to 400p.

It was a quiet market debut for online travel agent and retailer Ebookers.com following a placing of shares by American securities house Schroder Salomon Smith Barney at 97 1/2p. Already quoted on Nasdaq and Germany's Neuer Markt, they opened at 99 1/2p.

Regus stood out with a fall of 39 1/2p to 272 1/2p, after touching 259 1/2p, as venture capital backers Apollo and Deutsche Bank sold 30m shares on the day their six-month lock-up expired. Lines of shares went through at 260p in a placing organised by Merrill Lynch. The shares, floated last October at 260p, hit a peak of 392p in February.

Gaming Internet was quick out of the traps with a rise of 2 3/4p to 23p. Its greyhound racing service - gobarkingmad - has signed a three-year contract with BSkyB to distribute races from Australia as part of its interactive digital television service being launched in June.

Photobition rose 4 1/4p to 50 1/4p. Dealers said there were buyers around for the stock last week amid vague talk of a possible bid, or a management buyout.

• 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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