Market report: Tuesday close
B&Q retailer Kingfisher has not enjoyed the start to 2007 it had been hoping for after one of its biggest shareholders chose to slash its holding.
While other blue-chips were racing away on the first day of trading in the New Year, shares of Kingfisher were up 2½p at 241p after Artisan Partners — part of US fund management giant Artisan International Funds, headed by Mark Yockey — said it had disposed of 32.58m shares worth almost £80m. 1.39% of the company. The sale reduces Artisan's holding to 69.69m shares, just below the disclosable 3% level.
No reason was given for the sale by Artisan, which at the last count also held 4.91m shares in Home Retail, up 7½p at 417½p, and 12.7m in Countrywide, unchanged at 541p.
London and other European bourses took their lead from a record-breaking performance in Hong Kong. Japan and Wall Street were both closed today. Blue-chips were squeezed higher in thin trading, and the FTSE 100 index rose 90.1 to 6310.9 — its highest since 6 February 2001.
Mining shares again led the way, bolstered by the prospect of further metal-price rises. There were gains for Rio Tinto, up 37p at 2755p, BHP Billiton, 27½p better at 962p and Lonmin, 87p ahead at 3097p. Speculative buying lifted Scottish and Southern 40p to 1594p with the company seen as a prime takeover target in 2007.
David Lloyd leisure group Whitbread was marked up 14p to 1689p after broker Merrill Lynch added the shares to its Europe 1 list of top picks. It says investors are in a 'win-win' situation with the shares continuing to grow faster than the market currently expects, or becoming more highly rated on the significant value of its property portfolio. It has repeated its buy call and target price of 1800p.
Vodafone was up 2¼p at 143¾p as it continued its battle for control of Indian mobile phone operator Hutchison Essar. Whispers in the Square Mile say Vodafone will raise its terms as early as next week, in a move that could value Essar at up to $19bn.
There is also talk that Vodafone is eyeing Portugal Telecom. Brokers have expressed concern about Vodafone's track record of paying too much for other companies and then making huge write-offs.
PlusNet marked time at 207½p as BT Group, up 6½p at 307¾p, said that up to 29 December it had received acceptances for its offer for the broadband provider representing 96.3% of the company. The takeover has been cleared by the Irish Competition Authority.
Aim-listed Cytomyx was firm at 1.62p after announcing plans to switch its core business from being a pure biorepository into a human tissue-based biomarker discovery and validation company. It has reported a pre-tax loss of £2.17m on turnover of £468,048 during the six months to the end of September.
Myratech.net returned from suspension 0.2p lower at 0.37p after agreeing to reverse into Sky High Traffic Data in a deal worth £2.06m. It is also raising £300,000 through a placing of new shares at 25p. Sky High is a privately owned company that specialises in traffic data collection. The enlarged company will be called Sky High.
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