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Daily Mail, London, market report column(Daily Mail (London) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 3--You win some, you lose some. The recent heavy sell-off has left many professional punters nursing hefty losses. Fears of a looming credit crunch has seen private equity predators pack their bags and leave the City for what could be a long sabbatical. Shares in several old takeover favourites have taken a mother of a caning, none more so than Whitbread, in which a huge bull account had been built up amid widespread gossip that the leisure giant's days of independence were definitely numbered. Yet more salt was poured into gaping wounds yesterday as the shares collapsed a further 65p to 1588p. That's a painful 19pc lower than the 1950p level reached just three weeks ago. Back then rumours were rife that the 925m sale of its David Lloyd Leisure business had effectively opened the door for America's Starwood and its private equity "friends" to table a knock-out 21 a share cash offer. Starwood had a look, but unfortunately walked away after failing to raise the cash because of deteriorating debt markets. Whitbread was also dragged lower by news that major banks had the pulled the plug on Mitchells & Butlers (35p lower at 713p) planned 4.5bn joint venture property deal with entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz. Continuing its rollercoaster ride, the Footsie initially traded 68.7 points higher following impressive interim results from Barclays Bank (8 1/2p better at 686p) and household products giant Unilever (64p up at 1568p). It closed 49.7 points to the good at 6300.3. Dealers had awaited Wall Street's opening with bated breath because rumours did the rounds that Wednesday's late 300-plus point turnaround had come as the result of a wrong trade transacted by a fat-fingered dealer in the futures market. However, the Dow opened unscathed and proceeded to rise 83 points on the back of good earnings figures from Nokia, Starbucks and Viacom. Mobile phone giant Vodafone provided more than 18 points of the Footsie's rise, closing 6 1/4p higher at 1565/8p amid talk of a pending bullish circular and revived gossip that chief executive Arun Sarin has decided to sell some or all of its 45pc stake in Verizon Wireless, the second largest US mobile operator. British Telecom buzzed 7 1/2p higher to 317 7 1/2p after buying back a further 4m of its own shares at 316 1/4p. Shrugging off the 266.5m price fixing fine, British Airways cruised 17 1/2p higher at 403 3/4p ahead of today's first-quarter figures. ABN Amro upgraded to hold from sell. Relieved that UK interest rates were left on hold at 5.75pc, store giant Marks & Spencer added 21p to 635 1/2p. Department store Debenhams rose 5 3/4p to 129 1/4p following a Credit Suisse earnings upgrade and target price of 160p. Land of Leather jumped 17 1/4p to 267p following an upbeat trading statement. International bank Standard Chartered rose 36p to 1615p after hearing that Singapore investment company Temasek has increased its stake to 14pc from 13pc. Interims are due on Tuesday. Pursuit Dynamics rebounded 35 1/2p to 312p after announcing its water-based FireMist fire suppression technology has met all the requirements of Factory Mutual approval in the US. FM is a research agency for the insurance industry. Together with its business partner Tyco, it is now working on plans for an early launch in the Americas and Europe. Character Group exterminated the bears with a gain of 5 1/2p at 174 1/2p. The toy designer and distributor said it plans to launch a new "Classic Doctor Who" range of figurines. To be launched in spring 2008, it will include past and present Dr Whos and monsters as five-inch figures. The company expects to meet, or possibly beat, current expectations. Broker Charles Stanley says buy and has a price target of 250p. Computer services company Civica crashed 41p to 214p after discussions with a private equity buyer were terminated because of the current uncertainty in the debt markets. Altium downgraded to hold from buy but said the company remains an attractive target in its own right and particularly for a rollup of the local government sector. After terminating bid discussions with 5pc shareholder OPD, support services group Imprint plummeted 41p to 156p. Kaupthing believes talks could easily resume when equity markets recover. AFTER reporting record first quarter figures to end-June, Canadian stockbroker Canaccord Capital rose 30p to 965p. Revenues were up over 19pc to 113m with pretax profits of 27.4m, up 50pc. The dividend is lifted 25pc to 5.8p. Paul Reynolds, who set up the broker in London in 1999 when it acquired T.Hoare & Co, has been appointed chief executive. Plans are to grow the UK business significantly over the next year or two. To see more of the Daily Mail and the Financial Mail on Sunday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thisismoney.com. Copyright (c) 2007, Daily Mail, London Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |