Mike Ashley's Sports Direct International has wasted no time in starting its share buyback programme.
After receiving shareholders' permission for the move on Wednesday - never really in doubt since Ashley owns about 70% of the business - the company immediately bought 175,000 shares for cancellation at 97p.
Sports Direct can now buy back another 36m shares in total, which will have the effect of increasing Ashley's stake still further.
But with two directors also snapping up 1m shares apiece and a bullish performance from Ashley on Wednesday, the shares closed 13.25p higher at 114.25p yesterday. The revival seems to have caught out many investors who were short-selling the stock ahead of this week's half-year figures.
Overall trading volumes were thin before the Christmas shutdown, and with little corporate news, the FTSE 100 ended up 61.1 points at 6345.6, while the FTSE 250 rose 165.3 points to 10,397.2.
There was a smattering of bid speculation surrounding platinum specialist Johnson Matthey. Its shares added 93p to £18.36 on talk of possible interest from Dow Chemicals.
Advertising group WPP added 19p to 630.5p after an upbeat note from investment bank UBS and news of the acquisition of US consulting group Cheskin. Mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse was 6.5p better at 337p on hopes of a bumper Christmas, while Currys owner DSG International was also back in favour, up 3.5p to 102.8p.
Among the few bits of corporate news, BSkyB lost 7p to 600p after the Competition Commission recommended it should sell more than half its 17.9% stake in ITV. The move could cost BSkyB £190m since ITV's shares have fallen since Sky bought them, but the purchase did in effect block a bid for ITV from NTL (now part of Virgin Media).
Analyst Sam Hart at broker Charles Stanley said: "The possibility of a £190m loss on the disposal of the stake must be seen in the context of the much larger hit to profit that would have resulted from a successful takeover of ITV by NTL and the subsequent creation of a formidable competitor.
"The timescale of any forced disposal remains very unclear, but it seems unlikely that BSkyB will be forced into making a quick disposal of the stake at an unattractive level. Indeed, it is possible that it will be allowed to put the shares into a trust until a suitable purchaser is found."
Meanwhile ITV added 1.4p to 84.4p yesterday.
Northern Rock edged up 1.3p to 92p as hedge fund SRM, which wants shareholders to be allowed to vote on any sale of the bulk of the bank, raised its stake to 9.96%. SRM and fellow shareholder RAB Capital want an EGM to discuss the sale.
Pub groups were in focus after a largely negative note from JP Morgan. Calling 2007 a shocking year for the sector it said: "The fallout in credit and property markets has combined with concerns about the consumer to drive prices lower. We are cutting forecasts across our universe of UK pub and restaurant stocks by an average of 5% to reflect growing caution about 2008."
So Marstons lost 8.75p to 311p after the bank cut its price target from 450p to 320p, while Mitchells & Butlers slipped 0.25p to 442.25p as it slashed its forecast from 850p to 460p.
Housebuilders, wanted on Wednesday with hopes of another interest rate cut, suffered from profit taking. Persimmon fell 12.5p to 775.5p; Barratt Developments was down 6p at 441p.
The biggest faller in the leading index was Tullow Oil. It lost 20p to 630p after a disappointing update from its Mputa-4 well in Uganda.
National Express added 76p to £12.28 as the OFT cleared its acquisition of the east coast franchise. The OFT also gave the go-ahead to rival Arriva's cross-country franchise win, and its shares were 26p better at 795p. Arriva is also paying £10m, or 45p a share, for coach group Tellings Golden Miller, 10p higher at 40.5p.
Lower down the market, technology group Filtronic added 4.25p to 165.25p. The company has sold its compound semiconductors business at Newton Aycliffe to US group RF Micro Devices for £12.5m. House broker Cazenove said the sale price was higher than expected, and raised its sum-of-the-parts valuation from 196p to 212p.
Property group Erinaceous rose 1.05p to 3.7p on reports entrepreneur James Caan, one of the Dragon's Den stars, was considering a bid.
EnCore Oil added 6.25p to 44p as it placed 35m shares at 36p each with new and existing investors to raise £12.5m. Part of the proceeds will be put into its gas storage assets which are expected to be demerged into a separate company.
Not amused
The fallout from the BBC documentary A Year with the Queen continues to hit production company RDF. Its shares lost 15.5p to 174.5p yesterday after it issued another profit warning following the row over an edited trailer for the film which wrongly showed the Queen storming out of a photoshoot. RDF had already said in October it would not meet forecasts after the BBC temporarily cancelled any new commissions. Yesterday it said the BBC's move had gone on longer than expected and meant full year earnings would now only be around £7m compared with the £9.9m expected by house broker Investec. The BBC has now lifted the suspension on some group companies but not RDF Television itself.
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