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Market report: Tuesday close

By Mickey Clark for MailOnline
Updated: 12:15 EDT, 17 January 2006

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THE threat of another surge in oil prices and news of big falls in Tokyo this morning had City investors scurrying for cover.

Crude prices are on the way up again on world markets. There is increasing concern about what impact Iran's nuclear programme and mounting insurgency in Nigeria could have on supplies.

That was coupled with big falls on the Tokyo stock market, where the Nikkei 225 tumbled 462.08 points from a five-year high as domestic concerns triggered a round of profit-taking.

Back in London, the FTSE 100 index came off a four-and-a-half-year high with a fall of 41.2 to close at 5699.0. Sentiment was undermined by an opening fall for the Dow of 54.50 to 10,905.40 on Wall Street this afternoon, where investors returned from their extended weekend break. It later rallied to 10959.87.

The Christmas trading update from Tesco contained few surprises and profit-taking left the shares 5¾p down at 312¼p.

Fashion retailer Next slumped 3p to 1649p after Deutsche Bank said it thought the shares had risen far enough and cut from buy to hold while raising its sights from 1700p to 1800p.

Mothercare also suffered a setback, losing 9p to 356p. Broker ABN Amro has cut its recommendation from buy to hold following a strong run. It has raised the target from 335p to 370p. Homebase retailer GUS fell 13½p to 977½p as broker Williams de Broë repeated its sell rating after meeting the company.

Online poker gambler PartyGaming continued to rally from recent lows, 4¾p to 154p, ahead of next week's fourth-quarter trading update. The shares reached a low of 71p in October following a warning on future growth. Today's buying also spilled over into rival 888.com, up 5½p to a record 223p.

Car dealer Lookers moved into top gear with a rise of 11p to 480p. It has agreed takeover terms of 875p a share for Reg Vardy, up 65p at 888p, valuing its rival at £499m.

Close Brothers, the merchant bank which owns market-making outfit Winterflood Securities, fell 15½p to 960p. Broker UBS has downgraded from buy to neutral, saying it expects an uninspiring performance from the banking division this year.

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Aim-listed Mears clawed back some of yesterday's losses with a rise of 4p to 299½p after its latest trading update. Chairman Bob Holt says profits for the year just ended will come in at the 'upper end' of expectations.

The order book now tops £1bn and the social housing services group has secured new contracts with Leeds City Homes, Kensington Housing Trust and the London boroughs of Greenwich and Kingston upon Thames. Holt says a substantial amount of turnover for the next two to three years has already been contracted to the group.

But not everyone was impressed. Broker Altium downgraded Mears from add to hold, complaining the order book showed only limited growth, but Seymour Pierce has moved from hold to outperform and may look to upgrade profits.

Another Aim-listed company, CRC, which repairs mobile phones, tumbled 19½p to 103p, reflecting the loss of a major repair contract with Vodafone estimated to be worth £17m. Back in October, the shares fell sharply after CRC issued a profits warning. It says trading for the year just ended has matched revised market expectations.

Late shipments in the US have led to several profit warnings during the past six months at TV settop boxes maker Pace Microtechnology, down 4p at 57p. In the event, first-half pre-tax losses of £9.8m compared with a £4.7m profit last time. Outgoing chief executive John Dyson said Pace would 'recover a good proportion of the money in the second half ' but analysts are pencilling in full-year losses of between £1m and £2m.

Anglesey Mining rose 1.37p to 14.37p, supported by a positive drilling report at its AMC 17 test bore at the Parys Mountain property in North Wales indicating a rich vein of copper and zinc.

Tullow Oil rose 1p to 303p in response to news of an oil find at its Mputa-1 well in Uganda, which it shares with Hardman Resources, up 5p at 83¾p. Broker Merrill Lynch has repeated its buy rating on Tullow but rival Numis Securities was disappointed by the extent of the find and has cut from reduce to sell.

Dana Petroleum was another firm market mover, climbing 51p to 1007p as Merrill Lynch moved its rating from neutral to buy with a 1075p target.

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