COMMENT
This Week's Market Movers

By David Kuo (TMFDragon)
December 16, 2005

In the last full week of trading before the Christmas break, London shares crept 10 points higher to 5,528, thanks to a solid performance by banking shares.

Biggest Movers in the FTSE 350 (as at Friday 10am)

Risers
1.	Expro Intl. (LSE: EXR)	+11.2%
2.	Arla Foods (LSE: ARU)	+9.9%
3.	De Vere Group (LSE: DVR)	+9.8%
4.	Spirent (LSE: SPT)	+9.7%
5.	Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED)	+9.4%

Fallers
1.	Rangold Resources (LSE: RRS)	-8.4%
2.	Bodycote Intl. (LSE: BOY)	-6.8%
3.	Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI)	-6.7%
4.	Group4Securicor (LSE: GFS)	-6.5%
5.	Avis Europe (LSE: AVE)	-6.5%

It has been a good week for banking shares, which accounted for almost all of the FTSE's gain this week. Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) rallied 2% to 1,714p, and HBOS (LSE: HBOS) was 4% higher at 955p. Even HSBC (LSE: HSBA), which was fined £100,000 by the FSA for a trading blunder, gained 1% to 920p. But Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY) was unresponsive at 482p after an in-line trading update.

Marks & Spencer (LSE: MKS) has had a good week too, after it won a landmark tax ruling. It shares hardened 2% to an eight-year high of 488p. Carpetright (LSE: CPR) jumped 7% to 1,058p despite a 19% drop in interim profits. Argos owner GUS (LSE: GUS) gained 3% to 1,008p after demerging its Burberry (LSE: BRBY) fashion group. GUS has also splashed out £270m for PriceGrabber.com, a price-comparison website.

Icelandic retailing group Baugur has been on the acquisition trail also. It is to buy Whittard of Chelsea (LSE: WOC), which rose 5% to 90p, for £22m. John Laing (LSE: LNGO) slipped 3% to 307p after it terminated bid talks with an unnamed suitor, and De Vere (LSE: DVR) jumped 10% to 730p after it too spurned a mystery admirer.

London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE) was static at 620p after Macquarie bank launched a hostile bid, which has been emphatically rejected by Clara Furse. Meanwhile, Vodafone (LSE: VOD) fell 3% to 125p after it gobbled up Turkey's second largest mobile telecom company Telsim for £2.6b.

Cadbury Schweppes (LSE: CBRY) also has its eyes on Turkey. The confectioner, which fell 4% to 531p, said it wants to buy another 30% stake in Turkish chewing gum maker Kent. Sticking with food and drink, an 8% rise in operating profit lifted cake maker RHM (LSE: RHM) 5% to 272p, and demand for Britvic (LSE: BVIC) saw its shares bubble 5% above the flotation price of 230p. Read more.

This week also saw power station group Drax (LSE: DRX) join the market with a value of around £2b. The once-embattled company said it is interested in future consolidation in the power generation industry. British Energy (LSE: BGY), another power generator that was rescued from the brink, reported first-half operating profits of £135m. It rose 1% to 494p.

Other companies in the news include Provident Financial (LSE: PFG), which slumped 6% to 560p after shutting its Yes Car credit business, and Group4Securicor (LSE: GFS) sagged 6% to 156p on margin worries. Concerns over a possible misdeed at Rangold Resources (LSE: RRS) saw its shares wallow 9% to 870p, Venture Production (LSE: VPC) surged 9% to 514p following positive drilling news, and oilfield services group Expro International (LSE: EXR) jumped 11% on a contract win.

The Market Next Week

Only a handful of companies are scheduled to report next week as the stock market begins to wind down for the Christmas break.

Notable announcements next week

Monday: Wood Group
Tuesday: Capita, First Technology and Hanson
Thursday: Wilson Bowden
Friday: Markets close at 12:30pm

David owns shares in Vodafone.

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