Yesterday's trading: Ross dials up for a profit of £75m

By Geoff Foster for MailOnline
Updated: 08:49 EDT, 12 June 2009

David Ross, the flamboyant entrepreneur and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, added a further £75m to his massive fortune yesterday when he sold his entire 9pc shareholding in storage group Big Yellow (25p down at 313p) for around £36m.

Pay day: David Ross is the flamboyant entrepreneur and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse

He also offloaded 24m shares, or 2.6%, of Carphone Warehouse, (0.6p dearer at 127.6p) raising almost £39m. Remember, he still sits on 155m shares in Carphone, worth around £200m.

Sources close to Ross said the sales were for 'strictly personal reasons' but that didn't stop conspiracy theorists spreading nasty rumours.

They suggested that Ross needed the cash in a hurry to help refinance a substantial interest in the struggling commercial property market.

Kandahar Real Estate, his business that owns the Drakes shopping centre in Plymouth and Jackson's Square development in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, is said to be currently trying to renegotiate a £250m loan with Lloyds Banking Group.

Last year Ross resigned from the boards of Big Yellow, Carphone Warehouse and National Express, 6p lower at 327p, after it emerged he pledged some of his shareholdings in those companies as collateral against loans without informing the respective boards. He also resigned his prestigious role advising London mayor Boris Johnson on the 2012 Olympics.

Ross was subsequently cleared on any wrongdoing by the FSA.

The resilient Footsie shrugged off news of that yet another building society - West Bromwich - is teetering on the brink. Instead, it drew encouragement from an opening 104 point gain on Wall Street following in-line May retail sales data and closed 25.12 points to the good at 4,461.87

Barclays led the way with a gain of 16p at 304½p on expectations that next Tuesday's BarCap investor presentation will be upbeat. Buyers also piled in on talk that the £8bn sale of Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock will be completed anytime.

Drax, which has been kicked out of the Footsie, rallied 15½p to 474¼p. Leisure group Whitbread, which will be joining the boring power station in the FTSE 250 along with insurer Amlin, 3¾p better at 333p, closed 2½p cheaper at 886p.

Celebrating its return to the elite index, London Stock Exchange jumped 17½p before succumbing to profit-taking to finish 5½p lower at 768p. Also reclaiming its place despite the recent dire profits warning, plumbing giant Wolseley rose 17p to 1137p. It will also be joined by investor 3i, 2½p up at 272¾p.

Morgan Stanley upgraded drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline, 26½p better at 1058½p, to equal weight from underweight. The broker expects GSK to continue to build its emerging market infrastructure and bolster its consumer health business.

It also believes a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) decision on Cervarix. Its treatment for cervical cancer, will be come by the end of the third-quarter of 2009.

Rival AstraZeneca climbed 33p to 2517p after the FDA's advisory committee found Seroquel, its acute treatment for schizophrenia, to be effective and acceptably safe for the treatment of adolescents and the acute treatment of bipolar mania in children and adolescents.

After chief executive Terry Leahy said in a speech to the British Retail Consortium that 'consumer confidence is slowly seeping back, helped by lower interest rates, energy and fuel deflation and falling food prices', numero uno supermarket group Tesco rose 5.7p to 363.3p. Leahy also warned that 'clouds remain - the darkest being unemployment'.

Royal Bank of Scotland's ABN Amro advised clients to shop for Tesco ahead of Tuesday's first-quarter sales update covering the 13 weeks to May 31. The broker says there is nothing wrong with the business model and the shares look cheap.

Shares of the Indian Film Company, 12p better at 37½p, were as hot as a plate of chicken madras following excellent results. The investor in the Bollywood film industry saw more than a two-fold rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £4.6m. Net asset value increased over the period by 18% to 117.3p per share.

News of a £150m-plus Ministry of Justice contract to build a new Category 'B' prison facility at Featherstone, north of Wolverhampton, lifted contractor Kier 6p to 1006p.