Scots Power surges
INVESTORS in Scottish Power can splash out on an extra bottle of scotch to celebrate hogmanay.
Interim figures unveiled yesterday show a 16% leap in pre-tax profits to 95m and are at the top end of market forecasts.
Electricity sales to England and Wales rose by 6%, and capacity to distribute electricity south of the border will be upped 70% in 1993.
In addition, Scottish Power is forging ahead with plans to compete against BT and Mercury in telephones.
The group is in talks with National Grid to establish groundwork for a new telecoms alliance.
' It's still in the blueprint stage, but it has gone further than just being a twinkle in the eye, ' said finance man Duncan Whyte.
Shares jumped 2p to 222p.
Merrydown cider runs out of fizz
Liz Dolan
CIDER sales are fizzing  but Merrydown seems to have got lost on the way to the party.
While competitors sparkled in the first half, the Sussex-based cidermaker's profits trickled down from 1.1m to 1.07m.
Boss Richard Purdey blames higher interest charges and falling sales in the price-conscious South East, where cider drinkers have been tempted away by cheaper newcomers like Bulmers' Scrumpy Jack and Taunton's Brody.
Supermarket own-label brands are another headache.
Merrydown still leads the vintage cider market, but Purdey admits that ' margins are being nibbled '.
Falling pub attendances will hit sales of Merrydown's newest brand, Premium Draught Cider.
But benefits from a new nationwide distribution deal should start to come through next year.
Merrydown is suffering because it is smaller than most of its rivals, but that could also mean a faster recovery, Purdey says.
' Smaller boats tend to rock about more when the storms come, but they get moving faster when the weather calms down, ' he said.
A 12.5% dividend hike drew the sting from the results, and the shares fell just 5p to 233p.
Food flavourings maker Borthwicks jumped 2p to 30?p after serving up a 37% profits increase to 1.28m in the first half.
Miserable summer weather hit sales figures of soft drink and ice-cream manufacturers, but a 0.442m tax credit for the New Zealand business saved the day.
Property giant crumbles
THE collapse of property giant Rosehaugh failed to dent the market yesterday.
The receivers were called in at the Broadgate developer and the shares suspended at 7?p, but the FT-SE 100 Index shook off the crisis and climbed to a new peak, up 18 points at 2778.8.
Money supply figures unveiled by the Bank of England show that spending is again on the move.
Cash and notes in circulation grew by 3%, hinting that consumers are putting their hands back in their pockets.
A further cut in interest rates, however, to 6%, could be shelved until next year.
Brewers, drugs shares, leisure and stores were in the vanguard.
But properties were hit hard with Greycoat, Speyhawk and Stanhope losing ground.
Stores, pinning their hopes on a brighter Christmas, were cheerful.
Leading the way was Body Shop which jumped 12p to 202p.
Electricity and water shares lost ground.
Pentland Group sprinted 8p to 125p following a profit of 13m on the sale of its 20% holding in BTF (owner of Adidas) back to Bernard Tapie Finance S.A.
A deal to buy the whole of Adidas fell through last month.
UK's royal jelly maker loses its magic touch
George Campbell, City Editor
REGINA, the royal jelly company which makes the magic queen bee elixir taken by stars like Cliff Richard and Maureen Lipman, stung the City yesterday with massive losses.
It has plunged into the red, to the tune of 1.2m for the year to August 1992, and will not be paying a dividend.
Sales of the product, whose yellow capsules contain natural minerals and vitamins to alleviate ailments ranging from pre-menstrual tension to lack of energy, have crashed by 30% to 1.9m.
Last night, dealers reflected the trauma by slashing the shares to 1 3/4p from 2p, valuing the group at a rock bottom 2.3m.
Lawyer Shiraz Malik-Noor, whose family and trusts own a quarter of the group, is confident that things will pick up.
He said the outfit has no borrowings to speak of, and the company is now trading profitably.
Shiraz has stitched up major deals all over the world to boost sales, but it appears that UK buyers are very reluctant to splash out 13 for 30 capsules in the middle of a slump.
Despite its name, the company's owner freely admits that: ' The Royal family have never taken the product. '
Shiraz, however, is not a quitter.
He has stitched up deals with a Singapore company which makes Tiger Balm, one of Asia's natural remedies most popular ' cure-all ' ointment.
The woman who founded the company, Regina, Irene Stein, sold out earlier this year.
She flogged off her remaining 9% stake for 100,000 in February.
The government has given its blessing to the 935m bid by Tomkins for Bisto to Mother's Pride giant Ranks Hovis McDougall.
The Department of Trade and Industry has decided not to refer the offer which topped Lord Hanson's bid by about 150m.
Vistec's record rise
BOB Morton, the man who made a personal fortune of 15m building up and selling companies like Kwik-Fit, Burgess, Hatfield Estates and Norank, is poised to repeat the process.
His computer software group Vistec has romped in with a record increase of 29% to 1.3m in the first half, and the City is pinning its hopes on a further leap from 1m to 3.3m in the full year.
Meanwhile, Vistec is making the most of the recession and has a Pounds 4m cash pile.
Anyone who bought the shares when we tipped them last year at 8p has done well.
They stand at 25p and there should be more to come.
GA to reduce policy costs
GENERAL Accident is bidding to stem claims losses and bring down premium costs with the launch of customised household and motor insurance policies.
People pay extra for add-ons to basic cover.
No-claims bonuses on both products should discourage all but vital claims.
Sterling's dive saves Kenwood
THE cloud that engulfed the market on Black Wednesday had a silver lining for electric gadgets maker Kenwood.
The cheaper pound has saved the group from an embarrassing profits collapse within months of its July stockmarket debut.
Sales started to tumble just as dealings in the shares began, but Stock Exchange rules meant boss Tim Parker had to wait until September to warn the market.
A 10% fall in profits to 5m in the six months to end September is pretty bad news, but a 10% jump in sales since sterling left the ERM underpins Parker's promise that the second half will be better.
He says the government's turnaround on interest and exchange rate policies should give an extra boost to Christmas trading too.
US demand was strong, and new products like the Ultrascreen electronic water filter have helped Kenwood carve out a bigger share of the UK market.
But the deepening recession in most continental countries is hitting sales across the Channel.
The shares added 1p to 256p, 29p shy of the float price.
The first-time 1.5p dividend should jump to 5p at the full-year stage.
FT-SE surges as Honkers goes bonkers
A SHAKE-OUT in Hong Kong sent shudders through London yesterday and almost brought FT-SE's record-breaking run to a halt.
China's challenge to the UK's continued administration of the colony hit stocks and sent dealers scrambling.
But shares staged a spirited rally an hour before the close and the FT-SE roared to a new all-time peak of 2792.0 a whisker below the magical 2800 level.
The pound was firm against the dollar and the mark.
Hongkong Shanghai Bank (owner of the Midland Bank) dived 14p to 502p along with Far East trader Standard Chartered, down 10p at 543p.
Christmas cheer, kept stores ticking over and there were good rises at Argos, Ratners, Boots and Dixons and Clinton Cards, up 7p at 88p.
Rumbles continued in property after the Rosehaugh collapse and MEPC lost 5p to 334p in the wake of a 24% cut in its property values.
Water and electricity shares were on the skids.
The National Express group offer has been over subscribed and the basis of allocation will be unveiled today.
A premium looks likely.
APV, the engineer and food processor, has sold off its ventilation and warm air hand dryer business, Vent-Axia, to Smiths Industries for a cool 56m in cash.
Rain waters down pub group profits
Liz Dolan
DRINK-DRIVING laws, health worries and shrinking wallets kept even more people away from pubs last summer.
The weather didn't help much either, says brewing giant, Allied Lyons.
Although fewer people dropped into their locals, branded pub chains like Big Steak and Mr Q proved more popular.
And, with more people languishing at home in front of the TV, Victoria Wine off-licences managed to boost sales by more than 7% in the six months to September 19.
Group profits grew 2.5% to 283m pre-tax, but trading profits slipped 7m to 372m.
A 4m bad debt provision sent brewing profits 6.3% lower at 45m.
Star performer in the brewing division was Tetley bitter, which boosted sales by 8%.
Skol's sales were up by 4%, thanks largely to demand from couch potatoes.
Price-slashing by Allied and major competitors has wrecked margins, admits boss Tony Hales.
He says he's detected a slow-down in discount rates, but reckons the market will take two years to recover.
Dunkin Donuts had an ' excellent year ', but bad weather in the US hit business at the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream chain.
Shareholders get a 4.5% dividend hike to 6.95p.
The shares slipped 3p to 641.
A secure bet
CHUBB Security, unlocked by parent Racal, is now standing firmly on its own two pins.
Half year pre-tax profits have zoomed ahead by 92% to almost 27m, a much healtheir performance than expected and better than Racal's 23.1m for the same period.
The rise in turnover of electronic security has outstripped the physical side (guards etc) and this seems to be a growing pattern.
The results also incprorate redundancy, severence and reorganisation costs of nearly 5.4m.
The shares made their debut in October at 210p and closed last night at 227p, up a penny.
A good bet if you think the crime wave will continue.
Price cut to 100m for putting on the Ritz
George Campbell, City Editor
THE famous Ritz hotel is up for grabs for a knock down Pounds 100m.
This is believed to be the lowest price that its owner Trafalgar House will accept in order to dispose of it.
The Cunard shipping giant, which also owns the QE2, limped into port with storm damaged results yesterday, reflecting just how badly it has been blown off course.
Losses below the line have jumped to over 80m in the last year and in order to add ballast to the balance sheet the group may ultimately be forced to let its prized assets go at a knock down price if the recession continues.
It slapped a ' for sale ' sign on both flagships some months ago but buyers have not been queuing at the door.
The dire state of the property market has prompted it to slash the book value of its bricks and mortar investments by 138m to Pounds 700m.
The famous luxury liner and the prestigious London hotel have both plunged in value since the slump started three years.
Things are so grim that the group, which covers such diverse enterprises as engineering and house building, has been forced to pay its 6p total dividend out of reserves.
But out-going bosses Sir Nigel Broakes and Sir Eric Parker, the dynamic duo who have manned the pumps during the storm, are taking the development in their stride.
Between them they will pick up an aggregate 1.9m to cover early termination of their service agreements.
Sire Eric gets the lion's share with a three-year contract worth Pounds 432,000 a year.
New boss Allan Gormley is examining seeking a partner to help run the Cunard shipping arm.
The disposal programme comprises assets of over 500m and the Ritz in Piccadilly, Mecca for the internationally wealthy, could be yours for 100 m.
The asking price before the recession was anything bewteen 150m and 200m.
Trafalgar paid less than 3m for it back in 1976, five years after it purchased Cunard.
The shares, where Hong Kong Land has a 15% stake, dived 6p to 89p.
Current deficit
THE two million customers of electricity giant Norweb have been watching their bills.
This is reflected in half-time profits pegged back to 37.1m, a rise of only 3.7m over the last six months.
The figures have also been given a boost by much lower interest charges as a result of strong cash flow.
But its 214,000 shareholders need not worry.
Norweb is paying a higher interim dividend, up from 5.3p to 5.9p and the final should be just as healthy.
Meanwhile, the shares have performed well.
From a December 1990 price of 240p there has been a handsome gain to 445p.
Retailing and gas diversification are also promising.
New face takes over at Nivea
SMITH &amp; NEPHEW is to pick up 46.5m from selling the Nivea skin care brand back to Beiersdorf 50 years after it was confiscated from the German company during the Second World War.
The deal only applies to Nivea products in the UK, the Commonwealth and South Africa.
Beiersdorf already owns the brand elsewhere in the world.
S &amp; N bought the right to make and sell Nivea in Commonwealth countries for a minimal sum in 1950.
Under the deal, S &amp; N will continue to sell and distribute Nivea to existing customers for the next 10 years.
Beiersdorf will take responsibility for research and brand development, production and marketing everywhere except Australia and South Africa.
S &amp; N boss John Robinson said: ' Beiersdorf will be able to give the brand much better marketing support.
We've already been working closely with them for a long time because of the shared ownership.
They offered us a handsome sum and we accepted. '
S &amp; N's shares closed unchanged at 169p.
Gateway's last gasp
Liz Dolan
DETAILS are expected this week of a rescue package for the Gateway supermarkets group after bankers were warned it was on the verge of collapse.
Gateway's owner, Isosceles, says it will go bust unless it is allowed to stop paying interest on its massive 1.3bn debt for at least six months.
It also wants the banks to cough up more cash in exchange for shares.
The 38 lenders are also thought to have been told that trading is worse than at any time since the current owner took over in the late 1980s.
Meanwhile, Storehouse finance director David Simons has confirmed news leaked at the weekend that he is set to become Isosceles' third chief executive in 15 months.
Storehouse said Simons was due to be passed over in favour of BhS finance director Graham Rider next year.
City experts say profits could halve over the next year as the other supermarket chains eat into Gateway's market share.
Six-month figures, due next month, are likely to be delayed.
Buoyant market sails into uncharted waters
George Campbell, City Editor
A FRESH wave of buying sent shares scorching to new highs yesterday.
The FT-SE 100 Index continued to sail into unchartered waters and a further 3bn flooded into the market on hopes that the recession may have finally blown itself out.
I, personally, don't think it has.
Cheaper money and a plunge in the cost of living are working their way through the system, but the Government's finances are still in a mess and I think we could inherit a financial deficit of as much as 50bn in 1993-94.
The spring Budget, therefore, will be kill or cure.
If it fails to contain a panacea we will be back into Europe with the begging bowl.
The Stock Market, however, tends to look ahead about six months.
Cuts in interest (and mortgage) rates are starting to work their way through and inflation is heading for an all-time low.
The pound has steadied and the High Street should get a spending boost when home owners receive the full benefits of the building society cuts in the New Year.
I can't see the jobless figure going below 3m for a long time, but our 9m shareholders should get decent rewards.
Returns on bank and building society deposits have crashed to 3%-4% and shares and properties are now a viable alternative investment.
That vital ingredient  confidence  is still absent but it may resurface soon.
The FT-SE closed at a new high of 2807.7, up 18 points.
Second line shares, along with blue chips, were in festive spirit.
Woolwich cut
THE Woolwich Building Society is copying the Halifax and Bradford &amp; Bingley's decision to slash mortgage rates on its repossessed homes.
It is offering a special 4.99% two-year mortgage on leasehold properties that have been on its books for more than six months.
The offer applies mainly to flats bought in the late 1980s boom by first-time buyers who couldn't keep up payments when rates soared.
The package also includes free unemployment insurance for the first two years.
But the mortgage has to be endowment-linked, and borrowers will have to take out contents insurance through the Woolwich.
The Woolwich has also launched a 7.99% fixed-rate mortgage, which lasts for three years.
Widows fine
BRITAIN'S fifth-biggest life insurer, Scottish Widows, has been fined a whacking 120,000 for selling insurance policies to people who didn't need them.
It is the biggest fine ever imposed by the City on a financial services company.
Scottish Widows was punished for allowing greedy insurance brokers to sell unnecessary insurance to customers so that they could pocket huge commissions.
The insurer was ordered to write to 20,000 policyholders earlier this year, telling them they may have been sold the wrong products.
Some have since been paid compensation.
Industry watchdog Lautro could have banned the company from selling investment products altogether, but decided not to because it had been co-operative and had acted promptly to beef up its sales methods.
Green shoots sprout in the Black Country
THE green shoots of recovery are beginning to sprout in the Black Country.
Manufacturing and service companies in the Midlands believe they may be on the brink of an economic turnaround.
A survey for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce indicates a ' slow but steady gain for business in the region '.
But while turnover is expected to grow, profits will remain depressed and job prospects poor.
Chamber chief John Douglas urged the Government to accelerate public sector infrastructure projects, saying: ' There is no time to waste. '
Chrysalis emerges in front by a short head
George Campbell
MILLIONAIRE racehorse owner and entertainments boss Chris Wright, who sold his 50% stake in Chrysalis Records a year ago, unveiled a sparkling set of results yesterday.
They reflect a miraculous turnround from a loss of 9.3m to a profit of 5.6m for the year to August 1992.
But a lot of the impetus has come from the cash Thorn paid when he sold the record company.
The results include 11.58m arising from the disposal of the joint records venture.
The group's operations after the sale show a thumping loss of Pounds 4.4m.
But for the Thorn deal cash, the bottom line would have looked very shaky.
However, the music entrepreneur, who is sitting on a near 50% stake worth 10m, is about to make a fresh foray into the records business.
Restrictions placed on him by Thorn end in March and he has already head-hunted Steve Lewis, former boss of Richard Branson's Virgin Music Publishing, to head-up a new label.
The shares jumped 5p to 75p on the figures but reading between the lines the group's remaining operations are not exactly dyanmic.
The amusement machines side is deep in the red.
Chrysalis's interests now spread from Red Rooster Film &amp; Television to recording arm Lasgo Exports, but information on divisional performance is sadly lacking.
Forte turns eye to Savoy again
SHARES in the Savoy Hotel group were on the move last night, fuelled by bid talk.
Pundits reckon that Rocco Forte  boss of the Little Chef to Happy Eater chain  could be lining up a takeover for the prestigious London group and the price of the Savoy ' A ' shares rocketed from 633p to 710p, before closing at 7.
Forte already holds 68.36% of the equity and has rights to 42.12% of the group's total votes.
A stand-off agreement was struck between the two parties a couple of years ago but observers say the recent death of Savoy president Sir Hugh Wontner may have triggered a fresh attack.
But Savoy boss Giles Shepherd knocked the speculation on the head.
' The stand-off agreement with Forte has two years to run, ' he said.
' The reason for the sharp rise in the price is that Warburgs wants to buy 5,000 shares and nobody wants to sell. '
Forte shares added 2p to 182p.
Market Report
THE Christmas trading account hotted up again yesterday with another strong rally in the FT-SE 100 Index.
It shot ahead by more than 34 points to a new all-time peak of 2842.0 with buyers snapping up anything that moved.
Talk of lower interest rates in the New Year provided the main boost to sentiment.
The other prime mover was that the slump is now in its dying throes.
A balance of payments deficit of 1.2bn  bang in line with expectations  failed to dent the progress.
Stores, banks, brewers and leisure shares were in the vangard of the rally.
Property and builders were also moving.
British Airways soared 6p to 307p on news that it is pulling out of the $750m US-Air deal.
A 200m disposal programme pushed Standard Chartered to 560p, up 16p.Christmas sales hopes pushed Marks &amp; Spencer to 327p, up 6p.
Banana group Geest jumped 11p to 365p, boosted by recent tariff changes.
Talk of rate cuts was also good for the banks.
Barclays climbed 9p to 383p; Lloyds gained 15p to 530p and NatWest closed at 421p, up 9p.
Antiques on gift list
POSH gifts group Aspreys is thought to have lined up a late Christmas present for itself.
Shares in Bond Street antiques dealer Mallett surged 19p to 73p after an unnamed bid approach.
Gossips say Aspreys has picked up a 6.8% stake from banker Robert Fleming and 30% shareholder House of Fraser, which owns Harrods, is keen to sell.
Mallett is recovering from dreadful first-half figures.
Asprey, 5p higher at 290p, is flush with cash and has been on an acquisitions spree in the last 15 months.
Border's hefty cuts keep it out of red
Liz Dolan
BORDER, one of Britain's smallest TV stations, will soon be manned by a team of robots if current staff-shedding continues.
It has slashed its workforce from 350 to just over 100 in four years, and substituted high-tech gadgets like remote control cameras.
Cost-cutting helped boost operating profits 78% to 904,000 in the six months to end October.
The pre-tax rise was just 2%, after 385,000 redundancy costs, but staff reduction benefits will come through strongly next year, says finance director Peter Brownlow.
A summer jump in ad sales was clobbered by Black Wednesday.
Revenue is currently running nearly 10% below last year's pre-Christmas levels as foreign consumer brands refuse to compete with cheaper UK goods.
But plans are afoot to raise more cash from new programme sales.
In the pipeline is Silver and Gold, a Tom O'Connor-hosted games show, and a new drama series, devised by Border's chairman Melvyn Bragg, about English/Scottish border bandits in the 16th century.
The shares brightened 4p to 104p.
Tour firms dive over prices fear
FEARS of a price war among Britain's tour operators sparked off a fall in holiday shares yesterday.
Shares in Owners Abroad and Airtours fell on the news that market leader Thomson Holidays is to cut prices on some packages.
Last year, Thomson reduced its prices  which cut profits  forcing Owners Abroad to follow suit with price cuts.
But the two tour operators, Owners and Airtours, have already taken steps to ensure bigger business.
Airtours has linked up with Pickfords and Owners last week took a large slice of German-owned Thomas Cook.
But analysts are concerned that the latest cuts at Thomson could lead to lower profits all round.
The leisure industry, however, is one of the world's largest and most rapidly expanding businesses.
Airtours's progress reflected this by notching up its sixth successive year of profits.
This summer its market share increased from 12.5% to 13.9% and it has cash balances of more than 150m.
Quarries go for 3.2m
BUILDING materials business Albrighton is paying Tarmac Pounds 3.2m for five quarries in the north of England, plus a company that provides sandstone for refurbs.
The deal is being financed by a one-for-seven rights issue to raise 5m.
The balance will repay debts.
Albrighton jumped 3p to 13p, 1p higher than the rights price.
Tarmac shares shed 3p to 110p.
Hot tips for 1993
George Campbell
WE closed the book on our share tips last night and are pleased to report another year of success.
We have not won any Oscars, but the majority of our recommendations notched up gains of between 20% and 60%.
Not at all bad considering that all hell broke loose in September and the City was rocked by events outside its control.
Britain's shock exit from the ERM and the pound's devaluation sent shudders through the market, but it recovered.
Although interest rates and inflation were both falling, Britain had to struggle through one of the worst recessions since the war.
Thousands of companies went to the wall.
But money was still made on the stock market.
My hunch that Sainsbury and Marks &amp; Spencer would emerge on top proved to be bang on target.
People always have to eat.
The Sainsbury share price ended 1992 with a near 60% gain and M &amp; S endorsed the resilience of the quality food retailers with a rise of almost 25%.
Liz Dolan's Surrey builder Berkeley Group scored a near 25% profit for investors; elastoplast giant Smith &amp; Nephew enjoyed a 21% leap and exhibition group Blenheim jumped 25%.
But what a year it has been.
The stock market had a roller-coaster ride before and after the Tory election victory and forged ahead despite frenzied dealings on the foreign exchange markets.
The blot on our copy book, as far as tips go, was Mickey Mouse.
Our Euro Disney selection roared to nearly 17 at one stage and you could have made 3 a share profit then.
However, with Europe in recession and the weather very cold, visitors tailed off and the Disney magic evaporated.
Cathy Gunn's Medeva jumped 1 to nearly 3 but sagged at the close.
ICI endured a similar fate.
The coming year looks just as uncertain.
The recession has nearly blown itself out but it has left the Government with a massive deficit of 40bn-50bn and this will have to be funded through gilts, cost cuts or taxes.
But we are not shirking our duty as tipsters.
I am going for water and electricity and I also think that Asda and Kwik-Fit will rally.
Cathy Gunn is going down the catwalk in cashmere and has selected Dawson International.
She also likes Stirling Group (Ritz lingerie).
Liz Dolan (who was top of the pops in 1991 with Airtours) is sticking to Spring Ram.
She says the company is risky after the recent fraud sensation but she is banking on there being no more nasties lurking in the woodwork.
Her other choice is Courts, the ' see you all in Courts' furnishings group.
Clare Stewart, who scored with Blenheim Group, reckons that drugs will be all the rage in 1993 and selects Glaxo as a winner.
Her other selection is discount food chain Kwik-Save.

AND HOW WE FARED IN 1992
Company Tipped Closed Up/Down High/Low Tipster
SAINSBURY, J 360 573 +59.17% 580/340 George Campbell
BLENHEIM GROUP 388 485 +25.00% 575/388 Clare Stewart
BERKELEY GROUP 250 312 +24.80% 344/190 Liz Dolan
MARKS &amp; SPENCER 267 325 +21.72% 347/267 George Campbell
SMITH &amp; NEPHEW 137 166 +20.95 170/127 George Campbell
MEDEVA 199 220 +10.80 299/150 Cathy Gunn
ICI 1126 1015 -8.00% 1403/981 Cathy Gunn
SPRING RAM CORP 137 123 -10.22% 181/89 Liz Dolan
EURO DISNEY 1393 753 -45.97% 1684/678 Clare Stewart
FT-SE 100 INDEX +18.22% 2842/2281
Source DATASTREAM
Dealers have last tidy up
A SYSTEMS crash in the morning and a Stock Exchange bomb scare in the afternoon provided virtually all the excitement on yesterday's dozy stock market.
Hungover traders spent most of the day creaming off profits on earlier high-risers, or hoovering up stocks that had got left behind.
The latter included Reckitts, 19p better at 624p and AB Foods, up 13p at 509p.
Hopes of an economic revival boosted advertising groups Abbot Mead Vickers and Gold Greenlees Trott by 20p and 13p to 402p and 251p respectively.
But shares in Wheway more than halved to 6p after the engineer plunged to a worse than expected 3.51m loss and admitted that talks with a bidder had been abandoned.
A profit warning from computer equipment supplier INSTEM had its shares falling 20p to 80p.
Profit taking knocked 13p off Clinton Cards to 95p, 8p off Kingfisher to 570p and 6p apiece off Sainsbury and Argyll to 574p and 426p.
Debt fears hit upturn
FEAR of debt seems to be delaying a recovery on the high street, according to government figures.
The Central Office of Statistics says that savings and debt repayments accounted for 12.5% of disposable income in the three months to end-September, compared with 11.4% in the previous quarter.
But the figures are ' very volatile ', government sources warn.
That's another way of saying ' open to error '.
Second quarter figures had to be revised upwards by more than one percentage point from the estimate of 10.3%.
Rate cut treat for home buyers
LAMBETH Building Society is spreading a little seasonal cheer around by cutting mortgage rates for its 12,000 borrowers in January  three months ahead of schedule.
Normally, annual mortgage rates change in April but mortgages general manager Roy Stratton decided not to hang about.
The dip takes in two reductions, a 1.41% for December and a smaller one, 0.74%, for January.
' We thought it would make a nice Christmas present and show our borrowers that we are passing on the benefits of the recent rate reductions as soon as possible, ' says Stratton.
But the letter each borrower will receive from him will also point out that they don't have to reduce their payments.
' If they can maintain a higher monthly sum, they will pay off their loan quicker.
Even on an interest-only mortgage, any amount paid above the monthly interest charge is used to reduce the capital owed, ' he says.
And borrowers suffering from ' negative euqity '  owing more than the house is now worth  might do well to maintain their current monthly payments.
' This will help to redress the balance and bring them back to a positive situation.
Every little helps, ' he added.
Brave mower men cut a dash for wet spring
Cathy Gunn
IN this season of New Year forecasts  which mostly come unstuck  they are praying for rain in 1993 in Stowmarket, Suffolk.
A mild, wet spring would be just the ticket for Stowmarket-based lawnmower maker Atco Qualcast, whose management team has just bought the firm from cement group Blue Circle Industries.
It would make the green shoots of new grass grow under their feet in a most comforting fashion.
Could this bold, 17m management buyout also signal the beginning of the end of the UK recession?
In a period of anxious entrail-gazing, practically anything that coincides with what post-hoc statistics show to have been going on at the time, will qualify for this accolade.
In the meantime, a brave team led by marketing director Stephen Roberts have put their homes on the line to do this lawnmower deal.
This is a most un-1990s' move  but the spice to the deal is that this is a largely recession-proof business.
Provided the rain falls, and the grass grows, the team has few worries.
Their worst patch was in 1989 and 1990, before recession really bit.
That was when drought dried up the lawns, playing havoc with lawnmower sales and profits.
Now, with a wet 1992 behind them, green shoots are a distinct possibility in the garden, at least, and Atco Qualcast is ready to mow them down.
Roberts and his cohorts have persuaded venture capital specialist Candover to stump up the lion's share of 9m for shares in this potentially growth business, and the Bank of Scotland to provide 8m of loans and working capital facilties.
They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.
Atco Qualcast, signalled as up for sale by BCI some two years ago, without takers, has been restructured at BCI's expense by the very team now taking it over.
The outfit has moved from losses of around 1.7m in calendar year 1991, to an as-yet unfinalised figure in the black  which should be well in excess of 1m  for 1992.
Not a bad turn round.
Or, as Roberts cheerfully confesses: ' We have had a good year.
Sales are up, profits are up and all the new systems are working.
It was as good a time as ever  the lawnmower season starts in mid-February, so any deal has to be done now. '
Next month, the trade starts to build up stocks ahead of the grass starting to grow in March.
Atco Qualcast offers a range of lawnmowers from the kind-on-the-pocket variety with a wheel either side of a grass-cutting cylinder (and a handle) costing a mere 45, to a top-of-the-range, fuel-consuming Atco 30-inch cut with a ride-on seat and a roller.
The former are finding takers in eastern Europe.
The firm exports to 75 countries, but the British are still the main buyers.
Foreigners, apparently, favour a different type of grass.
(Don't tell British Rail, of the wrong sort of snow and wrong leaves fame, about this one).
The plan is to grow the lawnmower business over the next couple of years and then float the shares to raise cash to add in a few operations that are less seasonal, and less weather-dependent.
Let's hope that a wet spring will bring green shoots for Roberts and the economy alike.
Happy New Year.
Sweet and sour
AS 1993 approaches, City hopes are (again) geared to economic recovery.
This short week promises to be one of talk of an improving economic outlook, another point off base rates to 6% by the Budget (maybe), and  on a sourer note  the danger of a creeping rise in inflation later in the year.
Rising government debt will also be a worry, though most of us will be concentrating on dealing with our own borrowing exposures.
Property shares will get a shot-in-the-arm should one of their over-geared number announce that its bankers are backing it into the New Year, rather than pulling the plug.
(There has to be a first one soon).
And, on the home front, credit card charges are still being nibbled downwards by issuers.
January 1 sees the Co-op's 12 fee cards' APR fall to 26.8% and Barclays Bank 10 Visa card's APR dip to just 22.9%.
January 4 brings Girobank's 12 fee card rate down to to 26.1%, while January 25 sees TSB cut its no-fee Trustcard and Mastercard rates to 23.7%.
CASKET, the Falcon bikes to kids' clothier, waved off chairman Neil Balfour just before Christmas.
Casket's new non-exec chairman is Headlam Group boss Graham Waldron.
Bank finds some hope for jobless
BEING unemployed could be an advantage for people who want to start their own business, according to National Westminster Bank.
A recent survey by the bank has discovered that people who have experience of unemployment before becoming self-employed tend to do better than those who give up a job to do so.
Jane Bradford, head of NatWest's small business service, said people who had been unemployed possibly took more care over the initial planning, or were less likely to be optimistic than those who had quit their jobs.
The bank also found that young people were less likely to go bust than older people.
The survey looked at 2,000 start-up businesses over 2? years between 1988 and 1990.
Homebuyers breathe life into dead season
Liz Dolan
HOMEBUYERS are flocking to take advantage of cheap mortgages and rock-bottom property prices, says Harry Hill, boss of estate agents Hambro Countrywide.
In a traditionally dead time of the year for the housing market, Hambros has been inundated with buyers.
' December, which should have been awful, was almost hectic in some places, ' Hill says.
' These are words I've not used for five years. '
As long as the weather stays reasonable, Hill believes January could be ' very busy ' and the upturn should continue through the spring at least.
And after that?
' The market has to move up sharply one of these years, and 1993 could well be that year. '
Hambro Countrywide's shares soared 7p to 36p on Hill's bullish comments, boosting its market value by nearly 25%, as the stock market savoured the first piece of good news about housing for a long time.
Hill sums up the 1992 housing market in one word  ' weird '.
In a normal year, he says, estate agents expect a quiet start, followed by a good spring and autumn, a quiet summer and a poor winter.
' This year we had a not very encouraging spring, a busy-ish summer and a hideously bad autumn, ' he says, as people rushed to buy before the government reimposed stamp duty at the end of August.
' Then, bizarrely, we had a very good November and, although we've not seen the figures yet, we're expecting them to show a good December. '
A report published yesterday by the National Association of Estate Agents says many members had their busiest December for three years.
' The UK housing market looks set for a sustained and significant recovery in 1993, ' says the report.
' Houses are now as affordable as they were 10 years ago. '
President Michael Jones said: ' At last it looks as though home owners and estate agents have something to be cheerful about. '
The optimistic prediction contradicts this week's review by the Halifax Building Society which said house buying activity in the fourth quarter remained ' very depressed '.
Glaxo surges on Imitrex approval
SHARES in drugs giant Glaxo powered ahead 26p to 774p yesterday after US authorities gave their blessing to sales of its anti-migraine treatment Imitrex, in injectable form.
The late surge more than reversed an earlier price plunge as the bubbling US market turned cautious about defensive stocks.
Drugs always do better in nervous markets because people need them at least as much, if not more, when the economy is doing badly than when it starts to recover.
Other pharmaceuticals recouped some of their losses on the back of Glaxo's late recovery.
Wellcome closed just 4p adrift at 475p, SmithKline Beecham shed 15p to 428p and Medeva slipped 1p to 219p.
The rest of the stock market put on a spurt late in the day on the back of encouraging US consumer confidence figures.
The FT-SE 100 woke up with a bang to finish 20.3 points ahead at a record 2847.8, after an earlier 1.9 point downturn.
Stores posted healthy gains after reporting lively post-Christmas sales.
Kingfisher jumped 11p to 583p, Marks &amp; Spencer added 6p to 332p and Boots finished 9p ahead at 550p.
Only Ratners failed to join the party, falling ?p to 16?p.
Food stocks had a dismal session after a survey suggested that fewer than half the UK's big food companies had seen an upturn in demand by the middle of December.
Major M&amp;S supplier Northern Foods gave up 4p to 273p, AB Foods dipped 1p to 505p, and Cadbury Schweppes fell 5p to 448p.
Industry faces cash famine
GOVERNMENT cash needs may starve recession-bashed companies of vital City funds, a top merchant bank warned yesterday.
Flemings Corporate Finance says the cash famine that limited recovery in 1992 could get worse as City investors fund government needs by buying gilts, rather than invest in industry.
Gilts are special bonds sold by the government to finance its requirements.
Building societies have already warned that they will have problems attracting savings because the Government's National Savings bonds offer better returns.
In its report, 1992: A Pregnant Pause?,
Flemings also says company efforts to raise funds by share placings and rights issues did little to lessen borrowings.
Profit from our 10 resolutions
Liz Dolan
AS 1993 dawns, it's time to shake up your financial lifestyle.
Here are 10 New Year resolutions to get you in the mood.
1.
Declare war on debt.
Don't hoard savings when they could be better used to repay borrowings.
Falling interest rates have made debts cheaper, but they could still be costing you more than you're earning on investments.
2.
If you can't afford to repay debts on time, don't bury your head in the sand.
Contact lenders and work out a new repayment schedule, or visit your local Citizens' Advice Bureau or money advice centre (ask local councils or libraries, for details).
3.
Take a long, cool look at your shares.
Some privatised stocks are nearing their sell-by date.
British Airways, British Aerospace and Rolls Royce are all under a cloud at the moment, for instance.
But don't sell just because the price starts to slide.
Most shares should be held for at least five years to show a decent return.
4.
Check out building society savings rates in the weekend press.
If your cash has been in the same account for some time, make sure it hasn't been closed to new customers.
These ' obsolete accounts' usually pay derisory rates, but many people don't notice.
5.
Does your current account pay interest?
Most banks leave customers in non-interest bearing accounts unless they ask to be moved.
6.
Open a Tax Exempt Special Savings Account (Tessa), or top up the one you've got.
Early cash withdrawals wipe out the tax-free element, but you still benefit from better-than-average savings rates.
7.
Switch to a credit card with lower interest charges and an interest free period.
Most cards now charge interest from the date of transaction.
Repay in full each month, otherwise it's a horrendously expensive way of borrowing.
8.
Make a will.
If you're planning to leave the lot to one person, or don't have a lot to leave, buy a DIY will-pack from WH Smith or the Consumers' Association.
The CA's Make Your Own Will Action Pack, Pounds 9.99, includes forms and a 50-page advice booklet.
Tel: 0992 587773.
Use a solicitor if your affairs are in any way complicated.
9.
Check out shopping bargains.
Thrift is smart in the cash-strapped '90s.
The Good Deal Directory (25 a year from 071 352 8976) lists bargains in places like factory shops, shopping clubs and cut-price stores.
Bargain Hunter (1.95 on bookstalls, or 21 a year from 081 309 6576) includes charity shops and government auctions, but only in London.
Buy regional Factory Shop guides from WH Smith for 3.95.
10.
Try to cut down on motor and household insurance bills.
Switch from comprehensive to third party motor insurance if your car's value has fallen far enough.
Check out direct insurers.
Their rates tend to be lower because they don't have to pay commission to middlemen.
Direct Line's motor quotes are on: 081 686 2468; household quotes on: 081 686 8877.
Churchill Direct is on: 081 313 3030.
Holiday groups off to flying start
SHARES in holiday groups Airtours and Owners Abroad surged as newly confident Brits shook off recession blues and started poring over travel brochures.
Reports of buoyant bookings lifted Airtours 15p to 300p and Owners 7p to 94p.
Other high fliers included water and electricity shares, and Glaxo, up another 11p to 785p as US buyers continued to pile in.
But they were the exceptions.
Sainsbury's decision to slash prices in the New Year sent the shares plunging 14p to 561p as competitors declared a full-scale price war.
Safeway owner Argyll plummeted 22p to 398p, Tesco fell 14p to 251p and Kwik Save 22p to 784p.
Food manufacturers, already wobbly after Tuesday's pessimistic industry report, took another bath at this added blow to potential profits.
Pentos, the Dillons bookshops group, slithered all the way down to 56p, 14p lower on the day, after a profits warning.
Fellow stores groups also lost ground as dealers decided the euphoria about the New Year sales had been overdone.
It was all too much for the FT-SE 100 index, which closed 15.3 points adrift at 2832.50.
Pentos set to plunge
PROFITS at bookshops group Pentos are set to plunge this year, boss Terry Maher warned.
Brokers promptly cut forecasts by two thirds to around 5m.
Sales at Dillons and Ryman are marginally ahead, but Pentos Office Furniture and Athena have done badly in the fourth quarter.
Too bad if you missed the bus
George Campbell
Table not included
THE offer for shares in long distance coach giant National Express is twice over-subscribed and a premium is on the cards when dealings start next Thursday.
Applications for 250 shares will be satisfied in full and anyone asking for 500 gets 75%, ie 375 shares.
Those who wanted more than 500 have been scaled down, as the table illustrates.
Employees and contractors have been given preferential treatment and get the total amount applied for.
Last night, bets on what the premium would be ranged from 20p to 35p, which means the shares could kick off in the region of 2 compared to the 165p offer price.
The group, Britain's biggest coach operator, employs 1,000 people and carries 12m passengers a year.
It owns Euro Lines, Speedlink, Jetlink and Flightlines, the company which ferries passengers to and from UK airports.
Hotel values plummet
BRITAIN'S biggest brewer has been clobbered by toppling property prices.
Bass, which owns the Holiday Inns hotels group and sells one in every five pints of beer downed by the public, has slashed the book value of its property assets by a staggering 496m, almost as much as it made in profit.
This jumped more than 70m to 501m for the year to September but the recession has torn a gaping hole in the value of its hotels, restaurants and pubs.
But the giant is still cash rich.
The group raised a thumping 560m through a rights issue last year and has shed more than 84,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to reduce its overheads.
Shareholders can afford to celebrate when it comes to the dividend.
The final is boosted to 13.65p giving a total of 18.9p, up 6.2p%.
The shares, however, were caught in the market slide and lost 16p to 584p.
Granada boss tunes in to soaring profits
Liz Dolan
THE man John Cleese once called an ' ignorant upstart caterer ' has celebrated his first anniversary as boss of Granada with a 129% profits increase to 130.2m.
Gerry Robinson joined the TV and leisure giant from catering group Compass late last year and promptly infuriated stars  most notably Cleese  staff and shareholders by ousting TV guru David Plowright from Granada TV's top slot.
But no-one complained about yesterday's figures, which sent the shares soaring 25p to 334p in a plunging stockmarket.
Plans for a comedy about the royals, House of Windsor, appear to have been quietly shelved  maybe it would be hard to better real life.
Robinson won't comment on House of Windsor, but he's delighted to talk about the forthcoming 15m sponsorship of Coronation Street.
Bidders are queuing round the block, he says.
Robinson denies the need to find a major acquisition, following the failure of a reputed 420m bid for Forte's contract catering business.
But he makes no secret of his desire to merge with at least one other ITV company, just as soon as the Government allows.
He says: ' It's ludicrous that we have to wait for three to five years when a foreign company can come in and pick up a UK TV company right now. '
The leisure division, with the possible exception of motorway services, looks likely to be sold.
Cream rises to the top
DAIRY Crest, the Milk Marketing Board's dairy arm, boosted profits by 38% to 17.2m last year.
This was despite a 5% drop in demand for milk and pressure from tough-bargaining supermarkets.
Dairy Crest is due on the stockmarket in 1994, and MMB will be abolished.
Tarmac hit roof
SHARES in Tarmac, the UK's largest construction group, received a boost yesterday on talk of a takeover.
The price surged 6p to 96p amid rumours conglomerate BTR was to make a 750m bid.
Flames were fanned on reports that BTR's broker had been buying Tarmac shares.
Some 6.5m shares are said to have changed hands in two hours.
Elsewhere, FT-SE's four-day record run halted and it closed at 2764.5, down 27.
Weakness in New York and Hong Kong gave traders an excuse to mark prices lower.
Shares in A B Electronics dived 6p to 50p, despite a 50.3p a share bid from TT Group.
Lucas charged ahead by 8p to 132p on talk of an offer from GEC, which unveiled interim figures up from 346m to 356m along with a 1bn-plus cash pile.
London Electricity dipped 1p to 421p after half-time profits up from 14.5m to 17.3m.
Following story should be in text TaSpor
David is in Hirst class form again
by David Alexander
STRIKER David Hirst is back in business after believing his season had gone bankrupt.
Sheffield Wednesday's chief goalscorer made it nine from 13 games in the defeat of QPR but later revealed he is happy for the first time this season.
Hirst has kept scoring despite injuries, suspension and transfer talk.
' I feel back in the groove, ' he said yesterday.
' It's the best I've felt all season.
I 'm fit and can feel the confidence flowing back again. '
Hirst's pace and power was too much for QPR and he might have had a hat-trick.
Relief
' This has set me up for the rest of the season and now I can have a real crack at the England squad, ' he said.
The 24-year-old, leading scorer for the past four seasons, was unsettled by a 3.5 million offer from Manchester United.
Hirst denied it affected him, even though he did not score and missed several chances after the bid.
But he conceded: ' It was a big relief to get this one.
' I 'm glad to see the back of all the speculation.
Whether you're going or staying, it makes you wonder what's going on.
Now I've got peace of mind and I hope that's the end of it. '
Hirst's combination with Mark Bright is developing and the former Crystal Palace striker's goal made it eight in 14 games for Wednesday.
Bright said last night: ' I've gone four without a goal so I needed one.
But it's a pleasure to be a striker in this team, they make chances for you. '
Wednesday now go to Aston Villa or Ipswich in the Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final.
They won the League Cup two years ago and Hirst added: ' We've done it once and the way we're going we can do it again.
This team wants to play and wants to win and it's beginning to show. '
Mortgage rates fall below 5%
TWO of Britain's top building societies have slashed their mortgage rates to below 5% in an attempt to clear their backlog of repossessed homes.
Halifax Building Society, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, and Bradford &amp; Bingley are offering new buyers of repossessed homes a rock-bottom mortgage rate of 4.99%.
This represents a massive 2% cut on previous rates and compares with the existing average mortgage rate of 8.5% and fixed rates of between 7.2% and 7.75%.
The National Association of Estate Agents is concerned about price rigging of repossessed homes.
But new borrowers will not get the repossessed homes for a song.
A spokesman for Bradford &amp; Bingley said its 2,000 stock would be sold ' at the best possible price to give the evicted owners the best chance of clearing their debts'.
The total UK repossession figure is now around the 70,000 mark.
A spokesman for Stickley &amp; Kent, one of the UK's biggest repossession auctioneers said: ' We sold a couple of flats last month for Pounds 5,000, but by and large anyone buying a repossessed home does not actually get a bargain.
' The bidding at our auctions can be rather fierce. '
Ian Darby, of mortgage brokers John Charcol, said: ' Things are picking up.
We're getting more enquiries following all the recent cuts. '
A report suggesting a slight rise in house prices brought a further glimmer of hope for embattled homeowners yesterday.
Produced by the Halifax, the report says that house prices edged up 0.1% in November.
But it is contradicted by Nationwide's house prices index for November which shows a 2% fall in prices.
The Halifax figures, however, will be welcome news to more than a million homeowners.
With housing prices having fallen 7.9% since November 1991, these homeowners now owe banks and building societies more than their house is worth.
Condom giant's profits double
Clare Stewart
EXPANSION into new Asian markets is fuelling continued growth at consumer products group London International.
The condom giant saw interim profits more than double at 15.5m, reflecting a strong performance in its health and personal products divisions where profits rose 18.4%.
London International has 48% of the European condom market, which is growing by 2-3% a year.
Says chief executive Tony Butterworth, the Asia Pacific division is its fastest profit growth area, as awareness of birth control and AIDS prevention grows.
Allied businesses such as specialist surgical gloves also offer strong growth potential worldwide.
Butterworth said that London International's other main business, ColourCare photo-processing had ' been heavily hit by the recession '.
While there is scope for expansion in Europe, the group is cutting costs with the closure of three processing labs in the UK.
No major acquisitions are planned in 1992-93.
' We are concentrating on managing our cash and maintaining market share, ' Butterworth said.
The interim dividend is pegged at 3.2p.
Shares closed up 1p at 235p.
GrandMet slips
POOR results from Grand Metropolitan's US operations have eaten into profits at the food and drink group.
Pre-tax profits after exceptional items slid by 5% to 902m.
The worse-than-expected results knocked shares down 13p to 427p, before they closed at 428p, down 12p.
Trading profit at GrandMet's food businesses in America, which include Pillsbury and Haagen-Dazs fell 15% to 181m.
Results from its international drinks business IDV provide rather more cheer, with profits up 12% to 509m, while its retailing division had a mixed performance.
Group gearing has been cut from 75% to 64%, while the dividend is up 8.4% to 12.3p.
Hanson romps home with sparkling results
George Campbell
LORD Hanson, the 70-year-old Huddersfield-born tycoon, grabbed the limelight again yesterday.
The Anglo-American conglomerate that went public in 1964 romped in with results that should guarantee him another bumper pay packet.
Operating profits of the Imperial cigarettes to Butterley bricks giant have soared from 955m to 1.07bn for the year to September 1992, and this year should be just as buoyant.
A blip in profits in 1991 cut Hanson's remuneration from 1.45m to 1.38m, but this year his pay packet should stage a smart recovery to around Pounds 1.5m.
Hanson has been earning megabucks for decades; his personal wealth is estimated at around 100m and speculation is rife that before he retires he will go out with a final spectacular takeover.
He came near with ICI and Ranks Hovis McDougall but backed off when the stakes got too high.
Pundits reckon he has his sights on at least two other UK concerns, and if you can put your finger on them before he pounces, you will make a killing.
But even without another huge bid, Hanson will forge ahead.
Profits this year should top 1.2bn.
The shares, which yield over 6%, climbed 3p to 239p, a whisker below their peak of 244p back in May.
Bank boosts Fraud Squad
BARCLAYS, the biggest plastic card issuer, is gearing up for a blitz on card fraud in the run-up to Christmas.
The bank's fraud referral unit, which handles calls from suspicious retailers 24-hours a day, is increasing staff numbers by 20% to cope with what could be a 15% rise in yule-tide fraud.
The unit expects to make about 300 arrests this month alone.
Bad debt soars
SOARING bad debts continue to hit the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Although there was a marked improvement at the operating level, bad debt provisions of 401m, up from 351m, pushed year-end profits down from 58m to 21m.
Despite earlier profit warnings, the results were worse than expected.
The bank blames problem debts from small business and personal customers particularly in the south of England.
Scotland remains relatively free of debt difficulties.
Direct Line, the bank's insurance subsidiary paints a brighter figure, with profits up from 10m to 24.2m.
The divi is being held at 8.8p.
Shares closed at 189p, up 8?p.
HK panic rocks UK
A wave of panic selling in Hong Kong shook the City yesterday.
Fears that trade between the Crown Colony and the Chinese mainland will dry up triggered frenzied dealings, with the Hang Seng Index  Hong Kong's equivalent to the FT-SE  slumping by 8%.
This kept the lid on shares in both London and New York, and at the close of trading the FT-SE Index was up, but only marginally.
Sterling bucked the trend and gained against the dollar and the mark.
There was a strong upward surge in drugs shares early, but The floods swept insurance prices lower, with talk of big claims lopping 9p-12p off General Accident, Royal, Sun Alliance and Commercial Union.
Severn Trent added a penny to 445p following a 3% midway rise to Pounds 141m pre-tax.
Eastern Electricity gained 3p to 4, after an interim rise from 15.4m to 26.1m.
Alexon, the fashion retailer, crashed 27p to 98p following warnings of a dividend cut.
Abbey in big share sell-off
Clare Stewart
SHARES in Abbey National were in plentiful supply as the building society raised 103m through the sale of 30m unclaimed shares.
The placing was at 360p, 13p below the opening price.
The shares were the remainder of those allotted to Abbey National savers and borrowers at the time of its flotation.
The Abbey's Charitable Trust, which funds community projects, will receive 5m of the proceeds, with the balance being absorbed by the building society.
Abbey shares reacted calmly, falling slowly to close down 7p at 366p.
Drugs group Glaxo soared 36p to 823p on news of US approval for its migraine drug Imigran.
Hongkong &amp; Shanghai Bank fell 16p to 469p following the turmoil in Hong Kong, while retailer John Menzies added 13p to 459p after the sale of a US subsidiary.
The FT-SE 100 closed down 11.6 at 2759.4, while sterling closed unchanged against the dollar at $1.56, but up against the mark at DM2.48.
Brewer's Xmas joy
WOLVERHAMPTON and Dudley Breweries pumped out record year-end profits of 35.2m, up 7%, with a hefty 11% dividend increase to 11.4p, giving shareholders a pre-Christmas bonus.
The better-than-expected results gave the shares some fizz, adding 10p to close at 536p.
' The beer market has been sticky throughout, ' chairman David Miller said, but the group's strategy of ' offering customers good beer at reasonable prices' is clearly paying off.
Turnover was up 12%, helped in part by the 21m acquisition of Hartlepool brewer and pub business J W Cameron group from Brent Walker.
Pub trade was reported to be quiet, though stronger trade was reported at W&amp;D's Milestone Restaurants and Taverns where profits were up 23%.
Cashpoint
NEW issues of National Savings schemes go on sale on Monday.
These include index-linked savings certificates paying an extra 3.25% interest if held for five years, and 40th issue savings certificates paying 5.75% over five years.
OPEN until December 14 is Bristol &amp; West's Guaranteed Equity Bond Plus.
It is a five-year investment which pays a gross rate of 110% of the percentage increase in the FT-SE 100.
A FIRST time buyers mortgage fixed at 5.95% is now available from National &amp; Provincial.
First Time Buyer Guarantee is fixed until January 1994.
A TAX video for people setting up their own businesses is now available from Inland Revenue.
The video and booklet are available free from IR Tax Inquiry Centres.
Brewers lacking sparkle
Clare Stewart
FLAT, not fizzy  that's the general outlook for the clutch of brewers reporting this week.
Halfway results from Scottish &amp; Newcastle promise much the same as last year, around the 115m mark, as the beer market remains difficult.
Its leisure arm, which includes Center Parcs and Pontins, reported bumpy demand over the summer.
A slow recovery in the hotel market is likely to hold back profits tomorrow at Vaux Group, which owns the Swallow chain.
County NatWest is looking for profits to dip from 34m to 30m, though its brewing business is looking stronger.
Wednesday sees year-end figures from Greenalls, with profits slipping 1% to 63.5m, again reflecting conditions in the hotel and pub market.
Airtours should unveil excellent profits of 36m today.
TV company Carlton Communications, which takes over the Thames franchise in January, is looking good with analysts forecasting a profits increase of up to 16%, at 103m.
Expect good news also from retailer Great Universal Stores.
Interim figures due Thursday are on course for a 7% rise to 195.3m with analysts likely to be upgrading full year predictions.
Glass giant Pilkington looks rather less sparkling, as profits continue to fall.
Now Mickey Mouse's 2bn magic kingdom starts to wobble
George Campbell
MICKEY MOUSE and Donald Duck are in the dog house with Goofey.
EuroDisney shares have crashed like a stone and the future of the Pounds 2bn Magic Kingdom operation near Paris is looking shaky.
It is heading for a thumping loss of more than FF700m (about 85m) this year and if you believe all the doomsters and gloomsters, the vultures are already circling over the lovable animated characters created by the legendary Walt Disney.
On Friday, the price crashed to a new all-time low of 683p, 24p below the float price and well below their all-time peak of 17.
But that, as they say, is showbusiness.
I don't know about you, but I 'm a Disney fanatic through and through.
I was weaned on a regular diet of Hollywood fantasy at my local cinema, The Grand, in a remote, windswept North-east village during the war years and my passion for Snow White, Grumpy, Happy and Mickey has not dimmed with the passage of time.
I was even lucky enough to rub shoulders with my perspiring hero Mickey Mouse, under a maze of tunnels beneath Paramount studios three years ago.
He had his head in one hand and a cigarette in the other, but even the shock that Mickey was in fact human and a reformed drop-out from the Bronx failed to dispel the magic.
He quickly stubbed out the cigarette, replaced his head and raced back up into the daylight to entertain the kids.
And I reckon the same will happen to the shares.
They 'll come back with a bang.
But, like showbusiness, it may take a year before EuroDisney polishes up its act.
Most UK shareholders, if they were honest, would admit they bought the shares for their children and grandchildren.
They invested in a dream!
And, if like me you believe that dreams come true, you should hang on to them.
Investors in parent Walt Disney in America have seen their shares rocket from $3.80 to more than $40.
Dreams do come true.
It won't happen overnight, but I can assure you it will one day.
The fact that Disney boss Michael Eisner sold a big parcel of shares last week to net a cool 82.6m is also irrelevant.
He was simply cashing in before Bill Clinton takes office.
That's all folks!
Amstrad takeover ' scuppered '
REBEL shareholders are believed to have shot down Alan Sugar's plan to take his electronics giant Amstrad private at 30p a share.
Two of Britain's biggest fund managers are understood to have galloped to the rescue of beleaguered shareholders and will be lending their weight with proxy votes to scupper the controversial 113m takeover.
Sugar needs 75% of shares voted, plus a simple majority among shareholders voting, but he can't vote his own sizeable holding.
An egm to decide the company's fate will be held on Thursday.
Pupils want their share
Cathy Gunn
SCHOOLS and colleges are rushing to join a competition which teaches 16 to 19-year-olds about the thrills and spills of share ownership.
Pam Mapes, director of education at Proshare, was advised by experts that her mailshot to 5,000 secondary schools and sixth form colleges may get a maximum take-up of 10%  making 500 entrants.
But by this weekend, 850 had applied and more are still coming in.
' I 'm overwhelmed, ' she said.
First prize will be a 5,000 portfolio of shares donated by NatWest Stockbrokers, along with free investment advice and share dealing services for the life of the portfolio.
Regional and runners-up prizes will also be up for grabs.
Under The National Investment Programme for Schools and Colleges, each school has to invest an imaginary 10,000  left to them by an ex-pupil.
A pilot version, carried out in March in Nottingham, proved popular among teachers and students, according to Proshare, which was set up earlier this year to disseminate information about share ownership to would-be investors.
Flat beer results
McEWANS to Brown Ale giant Scottish &amp; Newcastle has unveiled flat results.
Half-year profits are down 6% at 108.4m and it seems the recession has finally hit the North.
Beer profits slumped from 54.2m to 51m but the leisure side, Center Parcs, kept up its momentum with maintained occupancy of 90% and profits nearly 2m up at 38.8m.
Occupancy at Pontins dropped 13% and bookings dipped after pit closures were announced.
Ahead of an expected Christmas boom, shareholders get a lift in the interim dividend of 4.5% to 5.76p.
Shares jumped 13p to 414p.
Fat figures for pig farmers Cranswick
Liz Dolan
HAPPY porkers meant fatter first half profits for Cranswick, the free-range pig farming business.
Boss Jim Bloom says 90% of Cranswick's pigs now live in fields.
A major contract to supply Sainsbury with ' high welfare ' pork helped profits leap nearly 50% to 968,000.
A chunky first time contribution from meat processor Yorkshire Country Pork supplied added spice.
' Super figures, ' says James Capel's Roger Hardman, who forecasts at least 2.2m (1.71m) for the year.
Nearly one third of Britain's 800,000 sows will be out in the fields by the end of next year, reckons marketing director Bernard Hoggarth.
That means less need for Cranswick's special footballs, used to stop inside-reared pigs from getting bored.
The group has also sold the balls to racehorse trainers to entertain sick horses confined to their boxes, but says there are no plans to send one to famous equine convalescent, Desert Orchid.
Discussions with another major supermarket chain should yield an own-label deal soon.
Next step is the development of Cranswick's own sausages and pies business.
Laughter in the hillsides
INVESTORS in South Wales Electricity  the smallest of the distributors  are laughing all the way to the bank.
The company's decision to pull out of retailing and sell its interests to close rival South Western Electricity has helped push profits to 29.7m for the half year, up 9m.
The move to hive off the bulk of the retailing shops has, apparently, saved over 6m.
Shareholders get a dividend rise of 0.8p to 6.6p.
The shares jumped 8p to 507p, 32p below their all-time peak of 539p.
A RAILWAY leasing plan may form part of the British Rail sell-off.
Transport Minister Roger Freeman said the plan is being considered ahead of privatisation legislation next October.
Airtours flying high as profits soar
George Campbell
HOLIDAY giant Airtours touched down with a bumper set of results yesterday, considering the UK slump and the fact that the group operates from a refurbished Lancashire mill.
Pre-tax profits for the year to September 30 zoomed from 27.5m to 36.5m.
Dividends jumped 26% to 7.25p and shareholders are pinning their hopes on continued success.
The group doubled the number of passengers it carried last year to 1.65m and should perform even better this year following the purchase in September of Pickfords Travel from NFC for more than 16m.
The latter is the third largest travel agent in the UK, has 334 branches, and employs 1,300 people  well over a third of Airtours 3,500 total workforce.
Meanwhile, the company is diversifying into skiing, to utilise planes during the winter months.
The collapse of International Leisure in 1990 and the sale of Dan Air to British Airways created waves but failed to blow Airtours off course.
It is sitting on a cash pile of 155m, which equates to over half its current Stock Market capitalisation.
' The holiday business generates substantial cash flow because passengers pay in advance and the holiday company pays its suppliers in arrears, ' said boss David Crossland.
This helped Airtours generate no less than 8m in interest alone during the year.
As to this year's profits, top City analysts have pencilled in around 45m pre-tax and expect Pickfords to chip in well over 4m, against last year's 2.7m.
Investors have also had a good run for their money.
The shares were floated on the Stock Market in 1987 at an equivalent 45p and yesterday managed to level out at 260p.
Lift-off for Westland
WESTLAND, the Yeovil helicopter giant at the centre of a Government storm seven years ago, has managed to lift off the ground.
Pre-tax profits for the year to October have climbed from 23.7m to 26.3m, with a lot of the impetus stemming from cost cutting and improved productivity.
Meanwhile, after recent shake-outs, the staff levels are now pegged following a bumper order book, up four times on the previous year, at 1.7bn, after Royal Navy orders.
First deliveries of the new EH 101 aircraft for the RN are expected in 1995-96.
Work is well under way in Britain, Italy and with Westland's production partner Agusta.
The shares, where engineer GKN has a 29% stake, jumped 3p to 116p.
Cupid boss darts
MICHAEL Murray has quit as boss of wedding dresses and dinner jackets group, Cupid after a boardroom row.
An insider said: ' It was the old tale of the founder wanting to keep running the show his way. '
Cupid unveiled a 168,000 first half loss, down from 93,000 profit last time.
New boss Richard Lee, non-executive chairman for eight years, blames increased costs after the acquisition from the receiver of Youngs, the clothes hirer.
Shares fell 32p to 53p.
Rocco's forte
ROCCO Forte, the boss of Happy Eater to Little Chef motorway restaurant chain, has finally sold his contract catering arm Gardner Merchant.
It has been snapped up by a consortium led by Cinven, a venture capital giant backed by the Coal Board Pension Fund.
Forte gets a cool Pounds 402m  a profit of around 300m  and still retains just under 25% of the caterer ahead of a future flotation.
Rocco's shares fell 5p to 164p after news he is spending 64m on the 52-strong Relais motorway chain in France.
Elsewhere, shares had a decent run but after a 16-point rise, the FT-SE closed about fivepoints adrift at 2754.5.
The pound was firm against the dollar and the mark.
On the bid front, Henderson Administration jumped 47p to 685p after a 42m cash bid for Touche Remnant.
New issue Hunters Armley, placed at 90p, jumped to 1 and Tadpole Technology rose 20p to 85p.
Bid talk also pushed Midlands Radio to 116p, up 11p.
The account ends on December 11.
Pay day, Dec 21.
New boss demands end to ban on ITV mergers
Liz Dolan
MICHAEL Green, boss of London's new weekday TV station Carlton, yesterday fired off another broadside in the escalating row over the Government's ban on ITV company mergers.
He cited growing competition from satellite and cable stations as one of the reasons why the rules should be relaxed.
Companies like Carlton should be allowed to compete fairly with foreigners who already had the freedom to buy British TV companies, Green said.
The demand, which followed a similar plea from Granada chief Gerry Robinson last week, came alongside news that Carlton had boosted profits by 15% to 102.3m in the year to end September.
' Good progress in a tough year, ' said Green.
But the City took fright at escalating costs and marked the shares down 4p to 715p.
Just over half the profits came from the US, where Carlton's North Hollywood processing lab dealt with a record 1.2bn feet of film, including Warner's blockbuster, Batman Returns.
The group has splashed out on a string of new programmes to be shown when it takes over from Thames next month.
They include Body and Soul, a series about a disillusioned nun, and Head over Heels, a Fifties drama about the early days of rock 'n' roll.
Serving up a smaller profit
HEAVY spending on pubs and hotels knocked 10% off profits last year at Vaux, the Geordie brewer and nursing homes group.
Vaux served up 30.91m (34.34m) profits to October 3, after pumping out 35m on 270 new pubs and 25m on revamps and new brewing equipment.
In addition, hotel and property values have plunged in the recession.
But trading profits grew by 10.9%, and boss Paul Nicholson says this year's spending should be broadly covered by cash flow.
Hotel occupancy rates slipped by nearly 1%, following last year's 7.5% fall, and sliding room rates wiped 2.7m off profits.
But nursing homes had another good year, with profits up from Pounds 3.2m to 4.1m.
The dividend was pegged at 6.1p, but the shares added 6p to 216p.
The Tadpole finds its legs
SHARES in stockmarket newcomer, Tadpole Technology, have gone through the roof.
After just two days on the market, the software group has shot up from 70p to 113p  great news for the institutions who got in on the ground floor.
But it's not so brilliant for any shareholders who sold at the float price.
Hopeful signs that consumers were at last starting to put their hands in their pockets helped to breathe new life into the brewers and stores.
Grand Met added 11p to 435p, Scottish &amp; Newcastle 12p to 425p, Kingfisher 6p to 583p and Dixons 5p to 269p.
The FT-SE 100 index caught the mood, recovering from an 8.8 point fall early on to close 15.4 higher at 2769.9.
Shares in Ossory Estates lost one third of their market value.
They crashed to 4p on news that the recession-bashed property group had plunged to a 41.6m loss (from 7.15m profit).
But the Newcastle-based computer group Sage has surged ahead by 20p to 454p after a 32% annual profits increase.
East Midlands Electricity added 1p to 408p after generating a 23% profits rise to 30.3m.
Bosses get pay message
DIRECTORS have finally got the message about bumper pay awards, the Institute of Directors reports.
They gave themselves an average 1992 rise of 5%, says the IoD, and a lot got even less.
A survey of 6,000 managers showed one in three took 4% or less; 14% got no rise, and 1% took a cut.
Average salary for managers of large companies is 78,000, plus an 11,000 bonus, and in top concerns 107,000 plus 18,000.
Renting is way ahead
THE great British love affair with owner-occupied housing is coming to an end, according to a report yesterday.
Merchant bank Morgan Grenfell says the honeymoon is over and the implications for building societies could be serious.
The smaller societies have had a lousy 12 months and this year is looking no better.
They will continue to decline in numbers and mergers with their big brothers are on the cards.
The abolition of tax concessions for home owners over the next two years, along with continued falls in house prices, will trigger a stampede to rent, it says.
Sterling sinks under German pressure
A SHAKY pound and the prospect of Germany pegging its interest rates until next year took the cream off the market yesterday.
The Bundesbank is due to meet this morning, and the cost of borrowing is likely to remain unchanged to keep a lid on the German economy.
The pound, which has enjoyed a decent run so far this week, was again under pressure and sank back against the mark and the dollar.
This sent a few tremors through the market with the FT-SE Index closing more than 19 points adrift at 2750.7.
BT lost 9p to 392p ahead of the final government sell-off next year.
The food retailers were also weaker, with Sainsbury down 13p to 529p, and M&amp;S falling 5p to 328p.
Tesco lost 7p to 250p, while Asda, ahead of figures tomorrow, was also down falling 3p to 52p.
GUS' A ' lost 35p to 1653p ahead of today's figures.
Newcomer Tadpole Technology leapt to 135p, up 22p.
Avon Rubber was also buoyant, adding 25p to 435p on the back of a profits recovery.
Euro Disney recovered, jumping 30p to 720p, a bearish statement from Guinness knocked the price down 23p to 502p, while a significant disposal at Lonrho sent the shares to 79p, up 5p.
Sugar's buy-out bites the dust
George Campbell
THE Amstrad saga took a dramatic twist yesterday with shareholders putting the boot into Alan Sugar's 113m buy-out plan.
His 30p-a-share offer to take his consumer electronics giant private has been rejected.
A fair price, they say, is about 46p, the equivalent of net assets.
So it will be interesting to see if Sugar's financial advisers Kleinwort Benson can come up with any more cash.
Basically, there is not a lot that former barrow boy Sugar can do.
He has more than 50m wrapped up in the concern, via his 35% share stake, and needs to protect it.
He is also extremely wealthy, and personally worth an additional Pounds 50m, thanks to the cash he raked in during the roaring 80s.
At its peak, when profits touched 160m, Amstrad shares zoomed to 230p.
Sugar had half the company then, was the golden boy of the decade, and was worth at least 600m on paper.
But the City is all about greed and fear, and winners can be losers overnight.
Small shareholders' champion Gideon Fiegel  the man who led the revolt against Sugar  has won a battle, but it is too soon to say whether or not he has won the war.
I first met Alan Sugar back in 1980 at Hulton House on Fleet Street when he floated off the company at an effective price of just under 2p a share, adjusting for scrips and the like which came later.
So anyone who kept their shares has had one hell of a ride and has still multiplied their investment 15 times, at least.
The barrow boy has tried, in vain, to buy fresh fruit, but his price is pitched too low.
BA confirms Qantas move
THE world's favourite airline yesterday rubber-stamped the rumours that have been swirling on Qantas.
British Airways is bidding for a 25% stake in the Australian airline, but will have to fight off challenges from Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand, and a degree of ' anti-Pommie ' feeling Down Under.
The Australian government has placed 49 per cent of Qantas, worth Pounds 640m, on offer, with foreign investors limited to a 25% holding.
The deadline for bids ended yesterday, and a decision could be reached in the next few weeks.
' Certainly we will reach a decision before the next election is called, ' a government official said.
Political analysts expect the Labor government to call the poll some time in February, about five weeks before it is held.
The remaining 51 per cent of Qantas will be sold off in a public share float some time next year.
Financial boost for Eagle Star
TOBACCO to financial services giant BAT Industries  which makeEND SLUcky Strike and Kent  has decided to use some of its cash pile to boost its insurance arm Eagle Star.
It is poised to channel a massive 450m into the insurance company in a move that hints that the competition is getting fiercer and that only the big boys will survive.
However, Martin Broughton, managing director of BAT Industries' financial services side, says that a recovery in underwriting is already underway.
' I am confident that Eagle Star will use the windfall to build a sound and profitable future, ' he said.
Growth-hungry pubs and hotels group Greenalls has wrestled a tiny profits improvement out of a difficult year.
Group profits rose by 300,000 to 61.4m after strong improvements by inns, restaurants and the Blayneys and Cellar 5 off-licence chains.
De Vere Hotels slipped back 1.4m to 14.2m after room rates were marked down by 7.6%.
Drinks and services slipped from 6.4m to 6.2m.
The shares added 2p to 356p on better prospects for this year.
Manweb plugs into a chilly reception
MANWEB, the north-west electricity company, suffered a chilly reception from the market yesterday, despite announcing a 35% profits increase in the six months to end September.
The company's shareholders got tangled up in a general bout of profit-taking that hit all electricity shares.
But Manweb reckons it deserves a pat on the back for producing such a sterling performance despite keeping electricity prices well below the rate of inflation.
The group has ploughed back 31m into the business over the last six months which boss John Roberts says should lead to further improvements in services.
Unlike many other electricity companies, Manweb managed to improve margins in its high street retail outlets, where sales held steady year-on-year.
But electrical contracting business fell 5%, despite lower wage costs.
The group has invested 1.7m in two wind farms via a company called Wind Resources, in which it is a 45% shareholder.
The rate of disconnections fell by nearly 50%, and should continue to fall over the next six months.
Shares fell by 2p to 471p.
CORONATION Street TV group, Granada, is to cut 250 jobs in a streamlining operation.
Redundancies will take place across the company's 1,300 workforce but Granada insists' quality of programmes will be unaffected '.
The shares dipped 6p to 335p.
Loyal losers at NFC
Liz Dolan
THE loyal band of worker shareholders at NFC took a hefty kick in the wallet yesterday after the Pickfords removals and transport group wheeled out its annual figures to October 3.
The shares plunged 18p to 266p on news that profits have fallen to 91m from 93.7m.
Boss James Watson says it is still pretty bleak out there in the market, and removals continue to have a rough time.
Business in October and November, after the reimposition of stamp duty hit the housing market, was much worse than last year.
A surge in borrowings from 29% to 55% of shareholders' funds was largely due to a buying spree during the year when NFC shelled out 75m on 16 businesses.
Watson says he is planning more acquisitions this year, probably in France and Germany.
Shareholders get a total 5% dividend increase for the year to 6.55p.
MFI'S 2.3m bedfellow
BEDS group, Airsprung, swopped Habitat for MFI and found a better market for its pine furniture.
Trading down helped the firm grab business from smaller operators and more than made up for falling sales of its classier Gainsborough furniture in the six months to end September.
But the main reason for a 37% profits rise to 2.32m was a Pounds 440,000 turnround in interest payments to 105,000 interest receivable, thanks to cash from last year's 3m rights issue.
The years catch up with Tiny
TINY Rowland, the 75-year-old boss of Lonrho, is selling nearly half his holdings, it was revealed yesterday.
The sale to German financier Dieter Bock should gross him around Pounds 54m and is understood to involve the sale of Lonrho shares at 115p each.
The deal provokes further speculation that Rowland is preparing the way for a successor to take over the group he has led for 30 years.
Lonrho's chief is expected to be left with about 7% of the company, which employs 137,000 people in international interests including publishing, car-dealing, mining and farming.
Depending on the take-up of the 181m rights issue, Bock will own between 9% and 19% of the group.
His holding could rise eventually to 25%.
In a letter to shareholders Rowland said: ' Believe me, it is only my age which occasions this. '
The shares crashed 4p to 75p, a full 10p below the proposed 3-for-10 cash call.
Sugar stays at the helm
MILLIONAIRE Alan Sugar will be staying on as chairman following the defeat of his buy-out plan.
He told yesterday's EGM: ' I will continue to steer the ship.
I won't do anything destructive.
I have 200m shares, nothing would please me more than to see them at 1 each. '
The final result of Sugar's plan to buy out Amstrad for 30p a share will not be known until this morning, but the board has already accepted defeat.
Sugar said: ' Life goes on.
I will be in the office tomorrow, storming around the rooms as usual. '
The shares closed unchanged at 24p.
Burberry's giant has 600m up its sleeve
Clare Stewart
BUNDLES of cash and no borrowings are the orders of the day at Burberry's to Kay's Catalogue retailer Great Universal Stores.
Profits at the group continue their unbroken rise, adding 6% in the first half to 195m, as improved figures were rung up by all divisions and the dividend was upped a penny to 13.75p.
Strong cash flow means GUS has a cash pile of more than 600m, ready for any aquisitions that come within range, and no borrowings to worry about.
Home shopping through its mail-order catalogues accounts for 42% of the business and saw profits increase to 81.5m.
' Trade has been keeping up well, ' said GUS's deputy chairman Richard Pugh, with the average spend of its eight million UK customers up on last year.
More tourists in London helped its Burberry's and Scotch House shops, while exports have been helped by the cheaper pound.
Worldwide there are 48 Burberry outlets, with a good performance reported from new outlets such as in Berlin.
Profits edged ahead to 12.5m and further expansion of its shops and product licensing is underway.
GUS's other international retailing interests were helped by a good performance from its South African business.
The consumer and corporate finance division kept a check on bad debt difficulties, and notched up a small profit increase to 62m.
GUS strikes a typically cautious note as to the business outlook.
There are signs of improvement but trading remains volatile, the group says.
Shares fell back to end at 1618p, down 35p.
Coach operator stalls
George Campbell
BRITAIN'S biggest long-distance coach operator made its stock market debut yesterday but its backers have not exactly made their fortunes.
Shares in National Express opened with a modest 6p premium at 171p, a sharp disappointment to investors who were hoping they would roar off to around the 2 level.
Dealings in the new issue, however, coincided with a lull in the market.
A decision by the Germans to leave their interest rates unchanged put the skids under prices in London and the FT-SE 100 was on the slippery slope.
It lost another 25-points to close at 2725.6.
Norman Lamont compounded the situation by ruling out an early cut in interest rates.
The pound was again shaky, losing ground against both the dollar and the German mark.
Tadpole Technology grabbed the limelight, up another 8p at 143p and nearly double its 75p offer price.
Eldridge, Pope, on the back of bumper interims, added a penny to 75p, while Fuller Smith, with profits rising to 3.75m (3.6m) at midway, climbed 5p to 345p.
Midlands Electricity and South Western also reported healthy figures but the shares retreated: Midland fell 2p to 451p; South Western slipped the same to 436p.
Fine Art Developments also failed to rally and after interims ahead from 4.5m to 4.95m, the price slipped 9p to 465p.
Glass group slips
GLASS giant Pilkington continues to find it a hard grind.
As worldwide demand for its products stays flat and costs remain high, half-year profits have plunged 70% to 15.1m.
Despite the grim news, Pilkington has not chopped the dividend as feared but is dipping into reserves to maintain the payout at 2.93p.
The group is continuing with its harsh medicine of job cuts and disposals.
Over the past six months 1,500 jobs have gone, with up to 4,000 more to go by 1994.
Gearing at 65% is too high, says chairman Sir Antony Pilkington.
The group is looking for a major balance sheet boost with the sale of its spectacle lens business Sola, which made a 10m profit in the first half.
Pilkington's main business of flat and safety glass saw profits slide 27% to 38.3m with Europe hardest hit.
Signs of improvement in some international markets, as well as sterling's devaluation, could provide some help for the full year in which analysts are looking for profits of around 45m.
Shares closed at 87p, up 3p.
Earnings up at Compass
CONTRACT catering giant Compass  which aborted its bid for Gardner Merchant  has pushed pre-tax profits from 32m to Pounds 34.9m for the year to September.
The figures are struck before an extraordinary charge of 2.3m reflecting costs incurred in the failed Forte catering bid.
A final dividend of 2.8p (2.6p) lifts the total payment from 7.7p to 8.4p.
Ad agency chief Martin Boase has joined the ranks of the groovy on his appointment as chairman of London radio station Kiss 100 FM.
Publishing group EMAP has a 98% stake in Kiss FM which boasts an audience of 2.25m.
Inflation fall lifts market
Clare Stewart
NEWS that inflation had fallen to 3%, its lowest level for six years, injected some much-needed confidence into a wobbly stockmarket.
Worries about the outcome of the Edinburgh summit, concern over events in Russia, and the shock collapse of a leading German steel company kept the market mood sober.
The FT-SE fell 22 points before rallying on the cheerier economic news to close down 10.3 at 2716.2.
Retail group GUS followed the market mood, climbing back from a 25p fall to end 12p higher at 1630p.
Also on the up was newcomer Tadpole Technology which climbed 48p to 194p  a premium of 129p to its 65p placing price.
Expansion plans and improved profits at textile group Albion helped it to a 24p rise to 75p.
An 800,000 loss at upmarket wallpaper group Osborne &amp; Little left its shares unchanged at 66p.
Bid speculation lifted Tarmac 6p to 105p.
Sterling was little changed, at $1.56 and DM2.46.
Unilever's Euro deals
PERSIL to Sunsilk consumer brands giant Unilever is boosting its European businesses with two multi-million pound deals.
It is spending 25m to acquire 70% of state-owned Polish margarine and oils business SZPT Olmex.
It is also taking a 49.9% stake in Swedish food company Bake Off for an undisclosed sum.
The Polish acquisition could see the arrival of brands such as Flora and Blue Band in Polish shops.
Unilever shares were given a boost adding 7p to 1069p before slipping to close at 1064p.
SMALL companies wanting to join the stock market have a new champion in the City Group for Smaller Companies (CISCO).
With the axe soon to fall on the Unlisted Securities Market, CISCO seeks to promote the importance of the smaller public company.
Cashpoint
NEW fixed-rate mortgages include 7.79% until January 1995 from Abbey National, and Cheltenham &amp; Gloucester's 7.5% fixed for two years or 8.75% set for five years.
FREE insurance while on the piste is available from National &amp; Provincial.
Its annual travel policy includes cover for up to 17 days of winter sports.
INVEST upwards of 5,000 in a Bradford &amp; Bingley one-year investment bond and an interest rate of 6.6% gross is guaranteed, with rates adjusted upwards if base rates increase.
HOLDERS of self invested personal pensions can invest a minimum 10,000 in a range of pension funds including guaranteed equity and with-profits funds.
The option is available through a Personal Investment Plan from Legal &amp; General.
Big potential in small companies
Cathy Gunn
SMALL investors could use any spare cash to pick up a few holdings in carefully chosen smaller companies.
Roger Hardman of broking house James Capel reckons the smaller company is about to come back into fashion in a very big way.
But hang on to your water and electricity shares for the winter, just in case economic recovery once again takes longer than the boffins say.
Their profits are safe and sure and their dividends generous and reliable.
Another tip this Christmas is don't put all of your nest egg into gilts, particularly if you are likely to want the cash out again in the next couple of years.
Prices are likely to remain cheap, deflated by heavy government issues of new stock, for some time.
All of which could give the right shares a healthy glow.
Bigger groups are likely to find economic recovery patchy and it could take time for higher earnings and dividends to feed through to investors; while the more volatile smaller businesses, having been hit harder on the way down could spring back faster, Hardman says.
His choice for your Christmas stocking includes pig-breeder Cranswick, Capita Group which runs computer departments for local government, electronic publisher Dorling Kindersely, and pen people Platignum.
Banks may close in on Gateway's Christmas
George Campbell
THE banks could be poised to slam the door on Gateway, the supermarket chain.
Isosceles, its debt-laden owner, is still knee-deep in hock to its big high street lenders, and speculation is rife that the remaining 10 shopping days to Christmas could be crucial.
Isosceles, formed only three years ago in a 2bn-plus management buy-out, continues to pay its debts on time.
But there are fears that any hiccup in Christmas trading could lead to it having problems maintaining its banking covenants in the new year.
Its debts total a staggering 1.3bn and although interest rates have crashed in the past two years, it still needs a massive cash flow to keep the banks happy.
Competition between its supermarket rivals is fierce.
Sainsbury, Tesco, Safeway (owned by Argyll) and Asda are all slashing prices to keep the yuletide tills ringing and this has hammered Gateway.
Rumours over the weekend were that the food manufacturers who supply more than 50m worth of goods to Gateway each week are concerned about extending further credit.
The gravity of the situation has been heightened by recent management turmoil.
Only last week, Isosceles confirmed that chief executive Alistair Mitchell-Innes will step down in the near future.
A successor is being head-hunted but may not be appointed until well into the new year.
The new crisis comes only months after Isosceles completed its second re-financing.
Losses are expected to top 100m this year, a major blow to the company's 40,000 employees.
A team of Coopers &amp; Lybrand management consultants is currently examining the group's trading strategy and should report before Christmas.
THE final 5bn tranche of the Government's BT holding will be sold off next year for certain.
Millions of extra shares will flood the market, but this shouldn't deter investors.
The telecoms industry is still in its infancy and growth is guaranteed.
Meanwhile, existing shares go ' ex-dividend ' today.
This means that if you sell after today, you are still entitled to receive the forthcoming dividend of 6.15p per share paid on February 15.
The 1.7m people who bought their shares last December will get their final payment call next March.
This is for 1.05p, or 90p if you opted for the discount.
A recent survey by Proshare-Mori reveals that there are now 9.26m shareholders in Britain.
Some 5.7m (including BT's 1.7m) have the government's privatisation issues, which embrace gas, electricity and water.
But only 200,000 have taken a leap into the dark to buy non-privatised quoted shares.
Utilities top market's bill
Clare Stewart
WATER and electricity companies dominate this week as a fairly select group of companies report results in the run up to Christmas.
Tomorrow's figures from Southern Electric promise a modest increase to 16m at the interim stage, while expectations at Southern Water have been dampened and a slight fall in profits to 60m is forecast.
Transport and container group Tiphook is holding its own, but while tipped as a recovery stock, analysts are cautious about improvements this year.
At the half-year stage profits are expected to be down on last year  around 35m against 39m.
Newspaper group the Daily Mail looks set for a healthy year-end rise in profits when it announces results on Wednesday.
Top-end forecasts are looking for 55m, an increase of just over 15%.
Good things are expected of south eastern electricity business SEEBOARD, which saw a change of top management earlier in the year.
Analysts at Phillips &amp; Drew are looking for profits up from 5.9m to Pounds 10m, with the dividend rising to 5.6p.
Encouraging profit increases are also expected from Wessex Water and Yorkshire Electricity, which both report interim figures on Thursday.
West country brewer Devenish should top up last year's profits  best estimates are of profits of 14m against 11.5m.
Food group ASDA will announce good profits growth, up from 10m to 35m at half-way.
Pelican takes off
LONDONERS who can no longer afford expensive restaurant fare are flocking to French-style cafe-bars such as Pelican Group's Cafe Rouge chain.
Customers are thin on the ground at the group's pricier outlets such as Cafe Pelican and the Leadenhall Wine Bar, but the Cafe Rouge is heaving.
And that's how Pelican managed to boost profits by an astonishing 173% to 357,000 in the six months to end September, despite a more pedestrian 35% rise in turnover to 3.83m.
The party continues in the second half, says boss Roger Myers.
Two new Cafe Rouge bars in Kensington and the Whiteley's Shopping Centre in Queensway should add flavour to full year profits.
The shares added 1p to 29p.
Anglo facing collapse
DEBT-ridden Coalite fuel group Anglo United is on the brink of collapse just six months after wresting a refinancing agreement from its bankers.
Boss David McErlain blames poor summer business and a vital sell-off deal that fell through at the last minute for this latest crisis.
Anglo crashed to a 22.65m loss from profits of 3m in the six months to end September.
Now it is pleading with the banks to reschedule 250m of borrowings to keep the company afloat.
The core businesses are still profitable, but are suffering from lack of investment, McErlain said.
Anglo's problems have been exacerbated by the mild weather over the past few years which hit demand for solid fuel just as the recession clobbered other parts of the business.
The liquid fuel division, which provides heating oil for offices and homes, and diesel fuel for lorries, is still suffering from low industrial demand.
The group's debt mountain is largely the result of massive borrowings taken on when it bought Coalite in 1989.
Plans to sell off businesses to raise cash have proved hard to achieve.
McErlain said the 40m sale of a liquid fuels business fell through the day before contracts were due to be signed because the buyer demanded a price cut to 29m.
The shares fell 1?p to 6p.
Berkeley's success defies home slump
Liz Dolan
TONY Pidgely, boss of upmarket builder Berkeley Group, has taken the bombed out housing market by the throat and shaken out 27% more profits in the six months to end October.
Flushed by success in selling homes in the slump, Pidgeley now plans to perform the same miracle in the recession-bashed commercial property sector.
By selling out when land values hit their peak in 1988 and then buying back at bargain levels later on, canny Pidgely has been able to slash house prices and still make a near-20% average profit per property.
Sales up 47% to 75.8m generated interim profits of 6.9m, with the number of homes sold increasing by nearly 40% to 468.
Because Berkeley tends to build just two or three properties per site, it can react very quickly to any changes in the market.
When Black Wednesday blasted another hole in house sales, Pidgely slashed prices by another 5% and shelled out a further 10m on cheap building land.
Berkeley Eastoak Investment, the jointly-owned commercial property arm set up 18 months ago, announced yesterday it was doubling its original 100m investment in the market.
BEI buys at knock-down prices from companies in difficulty.
It only considers properties let on long leases to blue chip companies.
US buying threatens Telecom
HEAVY US buying sent telecommunications giant Cable &amp; Wireless zooming ahead 20p to 667p after 2.4m shares changed hands in late trading yesterday.
The Americans reckon C&amp;W's Mercury offshoot will be able to grab business from arch-rival British Telecom, down 5p at 380p.
Shock news that the European Commission could, after all, block British Airways' Dan-Air bid sent BA's shares 2p better at 282p.
British Gas rebounded from recent weakness to close 6p better at 272p.
Brokers believe it has been oversold.
A late burst after a lacklustre day on the stockmarket sent the FT-SE index 5.6 points better at the close to 2721.8, helped by a firmer opening on Wall Street.
A flurry of brokers' profit downgrades hit Ladbrokes, off 12p at 168p, TI Group, down 6p at 278p, and English China Clays.
But a ' buy ' recommendation by James Capel broker Roger Hardman was good for a 13p rise to 173p at Cranswick, the free range pigs group.
Also tipped by Capel were Capita, up 5p at 417p, and Dorling Kindersley, 8p better at 253p.
Courts, the furnishing group, jumped 6p to 319p.
Shareholders in Tadpole Technology took profits.
The shares, floated at 65p a week ago, slipped 15p to 179p.
Fisons arm goes Swiss
FISONS, the ailing drugs group best known for asthma and hayfever products Intal and Opticrom, has sold its UK consumer health arm.
Swiss drugs giant Roche is paying 90m for the business, which includes Sanatogen vitamins.
Fisons sold its US consumer health division to Ciba-Geigy for 93m last month.
Eastern fragrance
TOILETRIES maker Creighton's Naturally is at last shaking off its dependence on two major customers, Body Shop and Crabtree &amp; Evelyn.
Its own-branded apricot skincare is selling well in the 1800-strong US drugstore chain, K-Mart, though a deal to supply Euro Disney hotels is thought to be suffering from low bookings.
Now Creighton reports the signing of two new contracts to supply own-label products to major UK supermarket chains.
The recent acquisition of 50% of marketing business Fine Fragrancesshould help expansion in the Middle East and Far East.
A 10% jump in half-time profits to 617,000 was due mainly to cost savings.
The shares brightened 7p to 225p.
Courts finds cheer in sluggish high street
Liz Dolan
CHINKS of light are at last starting to shine through the high street gloom, reports Courts, the furniture stores business best known for its irritating TV ads.
The shares surged 24p to 343p on news that profits had leapt 31.4% to 2.81m in the six months to end-September.
But that was largely due to higher sales in the Far East, notably Singapore and Fiji.
A host of new stores have opened in the Caribbean and Far East this year.
In the UK, four high street outlets have closed  but a new superstore is to open in Swindon early next year.
While welcoming the first signs of an upturn in UK demand, boss Bruce Cohen warns that any full-blooded recovery will have to wait until the housing market gets moving.
He predicts an increase in house-buying activity some time during 1993 which, in turn, will fuel demand for furniture.
Cohen's caution echoes a warning from the CBI that earlier hopes for a better Christmas on the high street may prove unfounded.
High street sales fell in Novbember and business this month is now expected to remain at last year's depressed levels, says Nigel Whittaker, chairman of the CBI's Distributive Trades Panel.
Most of the grief appears to have been felt by the smaller shops.
The major chains did better.
Furniture and carpet stores are doing better than most, as are grocers, chemists, footwear and leather shops.
More evidence that the recession may have bottomed out came with news of the first rise in manufacturing output in 26 months.
The Government said that manufacturing output grew by 0.3% in October, while industrial output rose by 1%.
Brighter hopes for Pound
George Campbell
THE fizz of the Edinburgh summit evaporated and shares were back in limbo yesterday.
The FT-SE 100 Index shed around 4 points at 2717.9 at the close but over the next few weeks all eyes will be on the pound.
It managed to hold its own yesterday and if it continues to strengthen the pundits reckon we could be due for another prolonged rally in shares in the New Year.
Ex-ERM, the situation looks considerably brighter.
The pound has found its own level and if the UK continues to creep out of the recession with a stronger pound, anything is possible.
There will be no need for a further cut in UK interest rates, even if the Bundesbank decides to opt for cheaper money as its own recession deepens.
However, a sizeable placing in South Wales Electricity fresh downgradings, and profit warnings, kept buyers at bay.
Welsh Water jumped 13p to 526p following the South Wales Electricity stake placed at 460p.
But signs of life were visible.
Guinness jumped 9p; tobacco giant BAT added 16p and there was fresh buying among the brewers.
Southern Water added 2p to 455p following good figures and a dividend raised by 9.2%.
A profits warning at Wace Group lopped 25p off the shares at 55p.
But last week's newcomer, National Express, closed at 182p, up 4p.
Exhaust giant Kwik-Fit was also ahead, up 5p at 101p on talk of a bid from Kingfisher, owner of Woolies.
Southern Electricity short-circuited, down 2p at 419p. despite healthy interims.
Tadpole Technology sank 13p to 165p on profit taking.
Computer firm Pegasus had its wings clipped and closed unchanged at 120p after a boardroom shake-up.
Housebuilder Y J Lovell slipped ?p to 10p after exceptional charges sent it plunging to a 12.2m loss.
Tunnel deadlock
George Campbell
SANTA Claus will not be arriving courtesy of Euro Tunnel.
A long-running cash row between builders TML and operators Eurotunnel reached deadlock yesterday.
The two are in dispute over a 1.27bn sum to which TML (Transmanche Link) believes it is entitled.
TML, a 10-member Anglo-French consortium, has had endless disputes with Eurotunnel over costs.
The latest row is mainly over the cost of the fixed equipment for the tunnel.
The Tunnel is due to open in December 1993, but full rail services are unlikely to be operating before mid-1994.
The cost of the project has soared to more than 8bn.
The shares crashed 11p to 329p.
Debt drain on water
BAD debts at Southern Water more than doubled to 2.7m in the first six months to end-September, when profits rose 8% to Pounds 60m.
Boss William Courtney says many more people were cut off for non-payment, but the shares added 2p to 455p.
Anger in the glens
CHANCELLOR Norman Lamont came under heavy fire on booze tax yesterday.
Pieda, a powerful economic group, has attacked him for his crippling levy on whisky and says the excise tax policy on the famous tipple is' against the national interest and discriminates against one of the UK's top five exporters'.
Whisky has export earnings of 1.8bn and gives the Chancellor 1bn a year.
' One whisky worker keeps four others in a job, ' says Pieda boss Donald McKay.
Pieda's report found that 56,000 jobs outside the Scotch whisky industry depend on the jobs of 15,000 employed directly by the big Scotch concerns.
Seeb powers to a rebate
INVESTORS in Seeboard saw their shares spark to life again yesterday following electrifying figures.
The South East distributor enjoyed a midway profits jump of 53% to 9.2m.
Turnover charged from 495m to 524m and earnings per share climbed from 3.5p to 5.1p.
Domestic consumers enjoyed the cheapest prices in England and Wales and will receive a rebate, says boss Sir Keith Stuart.
The shares jumped 7p to 440p.
Cook link with Owners Abroad in tours battle
George Campbell
THE battle between the tour operators hotted up yesterday with another major travel agent link-up.
Thomas Cook, the best-known name on the high street, has taken a leaf out of the book of Airtours (which owns Pickfords) and has snapped up a 10.3% stake in Owners Abroad, the UK's second biggest operator.
Cook, now owned by Germany's WestDeutsche Landsbank and LTU, is subscribing for 22.5m new shares in OA at 100p each and in return the tour operator, run by Howard Klein, is investing 20m in Cook 9.33% fixed-rate loan notes, redeemable in the year 2002.
In financial terms, it is a shrewd move for both concerns because it is expected to boost Owners Abroad profits this year by as much as Pounds 15m.
Cook, on the other hand, will benefit from a genuine boost in sales.
Both companies have compatible fleets, generating significant savings in maintenance, fuel buying, catering and other in-flight services.
Cook's determination to grab a slice of the tour operator business is also reflected in the price it has paid for its stake.
The 100p represents a 21% premium on the closing price earlier in the week.
The recession, however, has blown a hole in recent results.
In its last year, Owners Abroad profits slumped 19% to 25.5m.
Rival Airtours has fared a lot better.
Its figures unveiled last week showed a leap of 33% to 36.5m with nearly 8m stemming from interest on its 155m cash pile.
It doubled the number of passengers it carries to 1.65m.
Owners Abroad dipped 1p to 87p; Airtours added 1p to 244p.
Daily Mail profits dip
THE recession has taken a large bite out of profits at Daily Mail Trust, parent of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard.
The crash in property values in central London has resulted in provisions of 26.5m.
This has slashed the pre-tax profit figure from 47.7m to Pounds 43.8m for the year to September..
A final dividend of 98p (against 90p) lifts the total from 119p to 130p.
The shares climbed 9 to 78.
Aussies boost cider
CIDER giant H P Bulmer, whose brands include Strongbow and Woodpecker, kept shareholders happy yesterday with tip-top results.
Boss Esmond Bulmer says that cider sales' continue to show great resistance to the slump ' and this has bumped half-year pre-tax profits to 10.7m, a jump of 18% on the corresponding period.
The threat to cider from EC duty harmonisation has also evaporated, paving the way for a big drive into Europe.
Aussies have also developed a taste for the drink, despite strong competition from lager.
Australian profits leapt by 55%.
Analysts forecast 18.5m in the full year (17m).
The shares rose 9p to 400p.
Market Report
SHARES in Mirror Group Newspapers jumped 4p to 90p yesterday on speculation of a major placing.
Observers reckon that 52% of the company, currently in the hands of Maxwell's administrators, will be sold to institutions at around the 125p mark.
A pre-Christmas rally got underway on hopes that the economy will gather momentum in the New Year.
The FT-SE 100 Index shook off lacklustre retail sales figures and shot ahead by 15 points.
The pound was in no-man's land but there were some gains in blue chip and second line shares as buyers got a whiff of a brighter 1993.
Brewers, banks, leisure stocks and stores were in the vanguard.
There is also speculation of a mini-revival in the battered property market.
A 52% profits leap to 39.5m at Northern Electric sent the shares to 453p, a jump of 7p.
Alvis climbed 5p to 19p, despite a 71% plunge in profits to Pounds 1.1m.
It is also laying off 230 of its 750 Coventry staff.
Food giant Hillsdown Holdings added 8p to 130p after a maintained dividend forecast and boardroom shake-up.
High street retailer Argos dipped 7p to 277p after a Panmure downgrading.
Electricity bosses slash power bills in the Dales
Clare Stewart
GOOD news for shareholders and customers out now from Yorkshire Electricity.
Customers can look forward to an 5 cut in their standing charges while a 15% dividend rise to 6p is on the way for shareholders.
Yorkshire Electricity, regarded as one of the sparkier electricity companies, generated better than expected profits at the half year  up 28% to 42.5m  despite increased provisions of 24m against restructuring costs.
Chairman John Tysoe says that the Yorkshire and Humberside region ' continues to show a marked relative resilience despite the recession. '
And demand at the beginning of the second half has shown ' an encouraging increase. '
The increased profitability comes after cost cutting, with 200 job losses this year contributing to a 2% drop in operating costs, with a further 200 to go in 1993.
The reduced cost of electricity purchased by the company as well as lower inflation is fuelling the 13m of customer refunds.
A 0.8% increase in distribution to industrial customers offset a fall in demand from domestic and commercial customers.
Its supply business, to customers outside its geographical area, showed an increased loss of 18.3m but a profit is expected in the full year.
Non-core businesses including its retailing arm was back in the black with profits of 1.7m.
Last month Yorkshire announced plans to merge its retailing business with East Midland Electricity to create a chain of more than 100 shops.
Analysts are looking for full-year profits approaching 160m, after the important second half.
The level of price increases for 1993-94 have yet to be announced.
Tariffs in the past have been among the lowest in the country, with a 2% rise in 1991-92.
The shares added 5p to 473p.
Market Report
SHARES shook off a massive jump in the jobless figure and went up again yesterday.
More than one in 10 are now on the dole but the green shoots of recovery are showing through which gave a welcome boost to prices.
The FT-SE 100 Index continued Wednesday's rally and climbed 15 points before ending the session with a rise of 7.5 to 2740.3.
British Airways added 2p to 280p following the go ahead on its link with Qantas.
British Gas was also in demand  up 3p at 270p  after an Ofgas report suggesting the giant should be split in two.
Mirror Group Newspapers touched 92p, but closed unchanged at 90p.
Barclays dived 10p to 377p as brokers downgraded their forecasts in the wake of 240m provisions at property giant Imry.
Rolls-Royce rocketed following confirmation of add-ons to a the multi-million Harrier II combat aircraft order from the Italian air force.
Bolstering the deal with 13 new Pegasus power packs pushed the shares up 5p to 114p.
Homes on the move
THE first signs of spring flowers are showing through in the housing market, according to a report yesterday.
Estate agents right across the country are swinging back into action and The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors says that rising activity has continued this month.
There is vast supply of ' keenly priced ' houses and pent-up demand is high, it says.
Merrydown gets a welcome slurp
An 8m deal to acquire two soft drinks brands put the fizz back into shares of Merrydown Wine, battered after its poor results this year.
Yesterday's deal to acquire fruit juice brand Shloer and lemon drink PLJ from SmithKline Beecham helped shares rise 23p to 248p.
Merrydown is financing the move with a share placing and offer to raise just over 5m.
The offer is one new share for every 3 held, priced at 205p.
The company is also to change its name from Merrydown Wine to Merrydown plc and is applying to move up from the USM to the main market in January.
The cider and wine company has been building its soft drinks portfolio with the acquisitions of the Piermont and Sorelle brands earlier this year.
Merrydown's boss Richard Purdey believes there is' considerable scope ' for boosting sales of Shloer and PLJ.
For the half year to September, Merrydown reported profits down 19% to 760,000 reflecting strong competition.
Air waves buzz for Classic FM
A REVIVAL in local radio has put the icing on the cake for GWR, the M4 corridor operator which also has a large slice of Classic FM for which TV star Henry Kelly is a regular presenter.
Pre-tax profits for the year to September have mushroomed 112% to 721,000 and boss Ralph Bernard reckons there is more to come this year.
Its four franchises in the South West are booming due to a successful advertiing formula.
Local advertising revenue is up 16% and sponsorship revenue is ahead no less than 71%.
Overall listening figures climbed 10% and all stations are in profit from local income alone.
' The launch of the new GWR FM is the spring resulted in a 23% increase in hours in Bristol and Bath and the Swindon-West Wiltshire areas, ' says Bernard.
The divi is up from 4p to 7p and the shares, which peaked at 755p in 1989, jumped 7p to 297p.
Top up at Wessex
WESSEX Water saw profits rise 11.3% to 44.3m in the first half helped by a tight control of costs and improved results from its non core businesses.
The interim dividend is up 10.6% to 7.3p.
Chairman Nicholas Hood described the regulated business as performing well, with its waste management company boosting profits to 3.2m.
Wessex shares added 7p to 584p.
Things look tasty down at the local
MORE people are looking in at the local, if figures from West Country brewer Devenish are any guide.
Profits for 1991-92 have jumped 2m to 13.6m and its pubs total has rocketed from 376 to 532.
But Devenish is discovering that there is as much profit on a plate as in a pint.
It has snapped up 28 Roast Inns and Henry's Cafe Bars from Whitbread and aims to buy more.
The question is whether rival Boddingtons will return to the fray.
Its 128m bid (worth 210p a share) failed 18 months ago, but it still has 20%.
A new bid at yesterday's price of 259p would cost 160m.
But Devenish shareholders get a dividend sweetener.
The final is up from 5.05p to 6.35p pushing the total to 7.85p, a jump of 25.6%.
Spoiling the party
TOP tax expert Leslie Ferrar of KPMG reckons the Tax man is keeping a sharp eye on Christmas parties.
The Inland Revenue does not tax the benefit where the cost is modest, but if a company goes over the 50 a head bracket, look out.
Hampers, turkeys, wines and spirits are also treated as a benefit and employees P11Ds should show the cost to the employer.
Shares surge 10bn
George Campbell
SHARES surged to within a whisker of their all-time high yesterday following a brighter outlook for the economy.
A handsome 10bn flooded into the market on the back of a healthier manu facturing order book combined with a bumper trade balance boosted by invisibles like tourism.
This triggered a mini buying stampede and the FT-SE 100 Index soared 49.4 points to 2789.7, just 2 points below its peak.
Banks, builders, brewers, stores and leisure stocks roared ahead.
The CBI says that order books are picking up and this follows brighter news on retail sales.
British Airways soared 12p to 293p; electricity and water shares surged; building shares rallied, banana giant Geest jumped 55p to 345p and there were double-digit gains in stores and pharmaceuticals.
Consumer recovery hopes pushed Kingfisher (Woolies) to 580p, up 15p.
But National Lottery worries hit pools shares and Zetters sank 7p to 86p.
Tesco leap in Europe
Clare Stewart
SUPERMARKET giant Tesco is stacking up its continental shelf with the 150m acquisition of a majority stake in French retail chain Catteau.
The move marks a first step into Europe by Tesco, which has been tipped for a Euro deal for some time.
The family-owned Catteau group operates 90 supermarkets across northern France and made profits of 15m in 1991.
Tesco shares responded to the tasty deal rising 8p to 253p.
Supermarket group Asda delivered a Christmas bonus in the shape of much improved profits for the half year to November.
Beating expectations Asda rang up of profits of 46.1m against Pounds 10.1m last time.
Operating profits rose 9.4% to 91.9m.
The shares jumped 7?p to 61p.
Cashpoint
A NEW investment account for companies, clubs and societies is available from the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society.
The Business Extra account pays up to 7% gross, and offers instant access without penalty.
YOUNG savers with the TSB could win vouchers worth 150 in a Christmas competition that runs until January 8.
BIG savers with more than 30,000 to invest are offered 9.25% on the Select Gold Account at the Life Association of Scotland.
The depositor can invest in any of the leading building societies and receive special tax status, with interest taxed at 25%.
NEW fixed rates now out included 7.99% from the Royal Bank of Scotland; 6.99% from Nottingham Building Society and 8.55% from the Prudential.
Winners hang on to their success
WINNING business awards is often the commercial equivalent of appearing in Hello magazine.
No sooner has the smiling executive received the accolade or the happy couple been shown in their glamorous home, than the axe seems to fall, as the high flyer is ousted and the divorce lawyers summoned.
The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award has had a happier track record.
Now in its 20th year, it has few black marks among its winners.
The most recent holders include Phyllis Cunningham, chief executive of the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, Prue Leith of catering and restaurant group Leith 's, Anne Gloag, chairman of Scottish bus company, Stagecoach Holdings, and Mair Barnes, managing director at Woolworths.
All are still very much in business.
Would-be holders of this award (and birthday champers for life) have until January 31 to be nominated, or nominate themselves, with the winner announced in April.
It is sponsored by champagne house Veuve Clicquot, founded by the redoubtable Mme Clicquot.
The awards both recognise achievement and encourage up-and-coming business women.
Heseltine backs down on terror bomb cover
Cathy Gunn
CITY people will celebrate Christmas with lighter hearts.
This morning, Board of Trade President Michael Heseltine is expected to cave in to City pressure, and commit the Government to contributing money to an insurance pool to cover commercial property against terrorist attack.
New Lord Mayor of London Francis McWiliams is said to have played a key role in persuading Mr Heseltine to turn again.
The Government's earlier reluctance to put its hand in its pocket had led property experts to accuse it of unwittingly aiding and abetting the IRA's efforts to disrupt the City.
They feared that, without proper cover, the City would lose out as an international financial centre as large overseas institutions moved their European offices to less-exposed capitals.
London, City workers, and Britain's balance of payments, all stood to lose billions if that happened  something the Government, in its desire to cut public spending, seemed remarkably slow to grasp.
The drama blew up, so to speak, when top reinsurance companies refused to offer cover for next year against terrorist attack after counting the 800m cost of last April's expensive election night bomb in the City.
London is seen as the insurance capital of the world.
But top insurers said terrorism was a political problem not a commercial one, so the Government should pick up at least part of the tab for future claims.
It already pays all claims of more than 220 in Northern Ireland  at a cost of 680m over the past 23 years.
But the Government was not keen to give blanket cover on the mainland.
True to modern Tory principles, it said the insurance market should find a solution on its own  forgetting that even the battered UK insurance market can, and sometimes does, reject unappealing business.
' Not a risk we want to cover alone at any price.
Sorry chaps, ' the insurers said.
Market karma had (as the old joke goes) just run over the Tory dogma  and the shock has brought the Government to heel.
With many companies' insurance arrangements due for renewal from December 31, financial institutions had faced starting the New Year exposed to ruin should other City buildings become the terrorist targets.
But industries right across the UK faced the same risk.
Most City firms rent their office space from the big institutions that invest in commercial developments.
Leases are long, perhaps 25 years, and tenants agree to be responsible for general insurance and repairs.
Policies usually cover such things as riot and falling objects.
But if the entire building is so damaged that it has to be torn down and rebuilt, the landlord collects from his insurer to rebuild.
With terrorism suddenly specifically excluded, tenants and landlords faced being left with a very expensive hole in the ground, and no cover for the disruption of their business.
Now the Government is set to contribute to a central fund set up by leading insurers that will meet bills for terrorist damage.
Companies will have to pay between 5% and 10% more for their property insurance and the extra money, estimated at 300m-350m, will go into the pool.
The deal covers the whole UK mainland, and was greeted in the City as an important breakthrough.
Happy Christmas, everyone.
Stakis climbs back
Clare Stewart
HOTEL and leisure group Stakis will have something to celebrate today, as a modest profit marks the beginning of its recovery.
After facing near collapse, the new management under chairman Sir Lewis Robertson has restructured the company and a profit of 0.3m for the year is forecast by analysts at County NatWest.
This compares with a loss last time of 47.4m.
To complete the turnaround at the Glasgow-based group, analysts are expecting a call on investors with a rights issue.
Entertainment and media group Chrysalis reports year-end figures tomorrow.
Reduced losses are expected  between 1m and 3m  from the group which has now sold all of its interest in the Chrysalis record label.
Although it has plans to start a new record label in 1993, its current activities include television services and amusement machines.
Statistics out this week for the economists to chew over include November's balance of payment figures.
An increase in the deficit to 1.4bn is expected, reflecting lower export volumes last month.
