Market report: Yesterday's trading
Shag is back and has been for months. Any carpet salesman will tell you. Homeowners have switched back to cosy, warm long-pile rugs after fitting out their homes with cheaper alternatives.
The rug has definitely been pulled from under the laminated flooring market. It is no surprise then that specialist flooring company Floors2Go is struggling.
A profits warning in July saw the shares sold down to a low of 17¾p - compared with the April 2004 flotation price of 48p - but more of an upbeat trading statement in September prompted a modest recovery.
The stock jumped 6½p yesterday to 32½p on news the board were again in talks which could lead to a possible takeover bid for the company.
Rumours were rife that the approach has come from existing management led by chief executive Simon Farnsworth but the take out price would be around 30p a share.
In March 2005 it terminated bid talks with an interested party, believed to have been private equity group Apax Partners. Topps Tiles and Carpetright are both believed to have had a good look since then but walked away.
Shareholders now hope that chairman Alan Smith, who arrived this year with a wealth of experience gained at Somerfield, Punch Taverns, Superdrug and B&Q, will make sure that the group is not sold on the cheap.
Miners sewed a rich seam and helped the Footsie climb 51.5 points before closing 20.4 points better at 6149.6.
Broker UBS attracted new investment support to the sector by stating it sees further 'significant upside' to current levels. It singled out Xstrata (87p up at 2327p) and
Vedanta Resources (28p dearer at 1490p) as the most attractive but it also fancies Lonmin (82p up at 2984p) and Anglo American (51p higher at 2415p).
Rio Tinto, which has recently been rumoured as a possible merger partner with Anglo, jumped 79p to 2971p.
Private equity bid speculation lifted aggregates giant Hanson 15p to 741½p.
Tesco rose 4p to 397½p after Panmure Gordon increased its target price to 450p from 400p. Analyst Philip Dorgan believes it remains a long-term winner and that its growth prospects are at least as good as they have been in the 20 years.
Nervous selling ahead of today's third-quarter figures left BG Group 22½p off at 673p.
Investors pulled the plug on plumbing giant Wolseley amid whispers that a bearish brokers' tome would land on fund managers' desks this morning. The close was 33p lower at 1206p.
Wealth management group St James's Place jumped 27p to 411½p following excellent new business figures. In the nine months to end September, funds under management grew by 16% to £14.3bn. New pensions business was up 85% to £94m and investment business 55% to £135.3m.
Prevailing takeover hopes helped Northumbrian Water make a splash at 302½p, up 12½p. AWG nosedived 28p to 1573p after confirming that no third party intends to make a competing offer to the bid already on the table from Osprey, which already owns 22% of the equity.
Whitbread frothed 22p higher to 1423p amid continuing takeover gossip. One jackanory suggested that an Apax Partner-led private equity consortium is ready to bid 1620p a share.
Thriving support services group Homeserve jumped 72p to 1851p following some kinds words from ABN Amro.
The broker says the group has good growth opportunities across all of its markets, before adding that the current share price fails to adequately value the potential growth from the international business. It now has a 10% market share in the UK insured home repair market.
Transport group Stagecoach reversed 1¾p to 137¾p on hearing that broker Merrill Lynch had placed 16m shares at 136p with various institutional investors.
Gearbox maker Antonov was slammed into overdrive by a report that it is winning friends and influencing people at the Specialty Equipment Market Association exhibition in Las Vegas.
Byotrol firmed 2½p to 72½p after announcing it has been approached by major multinationals interested in gaining access to its cleaning technology, which has been confirmed as a successful killer of the hospital superbug.
It is no surprise then to hear that a placing of 8.34m shares at 60p to raise £4.6m was completed very quickly.
• Amusement arcades group Talarius put a smile on the faces of its shareholders by revealing it has received a bid approach. Floated at 80p in April 2005 out of the David Williams and Marwyn Capital stable, the shares hit the jackpot at 260½p, up 23p.
Cycladic Capital, the activist hedge fund of Greek shipping scion Dmitri Goulandris, holds 16.1%. Whispers suggest a take out could be nearer £3.
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