1. The Market Today
2. Biggest Movers
3. Conquerors -- Misys, Dixons, Barclays
4. Vanquished -- Sage, Logica, ARM
5. And Finally...
The Market Today
Great Titchfield Street, London -- Trading started tentatively this morning, following last night's 2% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index. However, opinions became far more bullish as renewed speculation about consolidation in the banking sector was re-ignited after the Bank of Scotland (LSE: BSCT) lifted even further its offer for NatWest (LSE: NWB). There was also plenty of action amongst telecom players.
Wall Street opened steadily as well in the afternoon. This reassured investors this side of the Atlantic and the market ended the day with its head held high. Perhaps dealers in the City are enjoying the sharp Winter sunlight and shrugging off the cold temperatures gripping the South East at the moment.
Biggest Movers
In the ascendant
Weir (LSE: WEIR) +13.2%
Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) +11.3%
Misys (LSE: MSY) +11.2%
NXT (LSE: NTX) +9.1%
McKechnie (LSE: MCKN) +8.7%
On the slide
Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN.) -11.0%
Morse (LSE: MOR) -7.6%
Next (LSE: NXT) -6.9%
BSkyB (LSE: BSY) -6.7%
First Group (LSE: FGP) -6.6%
Conquerors
Leading FTSE computer services company Misys (LSE: MSY) gave its investors a real roller-coaster ride today. When the group issued its bald interim statement, showing pre-tax profits down 18% to £48.3m and operating profits off 6%, followers of the Qualiport, which holds the stock, feared the worst. At first the market marked down the stock 5%.
However, once the loquacious chairman Kevin Lomax had sweet-talked analysts, witnessed by our own TMF Mayn, the shares recovered for the rest of the day. The Lunchbox covers the details of the Y2K slowdown and prospects for the future. Misys has invested heavily in e-commerce activities recently and these should reap dividends in the full year. After being suitably wined and dined brokers returned to their desks and pushed the shares to the top of the FTSE 100 leader-board. By the end of this topsy-turvy session, the stock showed a 82.5p, or 10.4%, rise, finishing at 874p.
In the wake of this month's mega media mergers, the continuing battle, conducted by Scottish banks, to take over English rival NatWest (LSE: NWB) seems to have been slightly sidelined. This morning, the campaign came to the forefront again. The market paid attention as the Bank of Scotland (LSE: BSCT) raised its offer for NatWest to 1456p a share. That comes in at £24.3b, which is 11% above the bid by rival the Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBOS). This sent NatWest's shares up 46p, or 3.7%, to 1280p. Other high street banks got swept up in this renewed enthusiasm as well. Barclays (LSE: BARC) rose 93p, or 6.2%, to 1574p and Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY) improved 31p, or 4.7%, to 678p.
Fitness First (LSE: FTF) reported healthy full year figures this morning. Profits before tax rose 141% to £6.62m after sales doubled to £27.2m. The group now runs 80 clubs. 22 of them are based in Germany and the Low Countries. A £40m share issue last summer helped fund this expansion. The shares rose 102.5p, or 9.7%, to 1160p. This puts the group on a racy rating of over 60 times earnings. For more comment on this growth extravaganza look at this morning's Breakfast Fool. Rival LA Fitness (LSE: LFS) also shot up 57.5p, or 15.4%, to 430p on the back of this performance.
Electronic components maker Critchley (LSE: CTY) shot up 185p, or 44.8%, to 597.5p after US company Brady made a 575p a share bid for the group. This values Critchley at almost £94m. Critchley's directors were dismayed by this offer, considering it valued the group far too cheaply. Dismissing the US bid as opportunistic the board urged shareholders to dismiss it. There's no pleasing some people.
A newspaper report highlighted some other undervalued engineering companies ripe for a bid from cash-rich US rivals. Most notably Scottish group Weir (LSE: WEIR) leapt 26p, or 13.2%, to 222.5p. Mckechnie (LSE: MKNE), up 24p, or 8.4%, to 306.5p and Premier Farnell (LSE: PFL), which rose 39.5p, or 8.4%, to 506p, also got involved in this fun.
Ruleshaker holding BT (LSE: BT.A) continued its steady rise, jumping 63p, or 5%, to 1306p today. Another FTSE favourite, Dixons (LSE: DXNS) soared 95p, or 8.6%, to 1199p. This happened after yesterday's anomaly which left Freeserve (LSE: FRE), which is 80% owned by Dixons, valued at more than its parent! This had little effect however, since Freeserve itself also went up 50.5p, or 9.4%, to 583.5p today. This allowed the Internet access arm to maintain its lead.
Vanquished
Perhaps upset by Nasdaq's falls overnight as well as earnings worries from French software and services giant Cap Gemini and UK equivalent Misys (LSE: MSY), covered above, many investors' tech favourites also subsided slightly today.
Accountancy software provider Sage (LSE: SGE) stumbled, dropping 35p, or 4.6%, to 713p. Fellow IT services house Logica (LSE: LOG) lost 52p, or 3%, to 1678p. Chip developer ARM (LSE: ARM) shed 108p, or 3.1%, to 3289p. And satellite broadcaster BSkyB (LSE: BSY), which has been risen strongly for much of this year, fell back 70p, or 5.5%, to 1192.5p. Long term Fools might consider these blips to be buying opportunities!
Miller Fisher (LSE: MFG) issued a trading statement, which expressed fears that full year results would show a drop in profits. Shares in the insurance group shed 25p, or 28%, to 64.25p.
To find any fallers of significant substance market followers had to trawl outside the leading indices. Here the main victims were small Biotech companies. AIM-listed tiddler Alizyme (LSE: AZM), which is trying to find a drug to stop obesity, reported some figures rather overladen with losses today. This affected the shares sending them down 11.5p, or 17.6%, to 53.5p. Other small biotechs fell on this news as well.
And Finally...
One of the reasons given today for Belgian restaurant chain Belgo's (LSE: BGO) 19% share price rise to 6.25p was that it might be installing Internet access stations in its beer, chips and mussels joints. This speculation certainly looks as if it could have been picked up in one of Belgo's beer parlours. I doubt somehow whether this move will help sales, even if this e-beer vision does come true.
Only a fortnight ago the group warned that this year's figures would be below market expectations. Shareholders might just have to cry into their beer for a bit longer, unless of course chairman Luke Johnson has something up his sleeve. He also happens to be a shareholder in flighty Internet investment fund e-xentric. This used to be called Blakes Clothing (LSE: BLS) before changing its name causing its share price to rise 2000%!
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