Charter shows Guinness is good for you

WHEN A company has a renowned activist sitting on its share register and breathing down management's neck, it must perform. When that major 18.5% holder is the aggressive Guinness Peat, the pressure must be even greater. Mining equipment group

Long-term holder Guinness Peat was no doubt delighted to hear that trading in the second half of 2003 was ahead of expectations. About £40m has been realised through asset disposals and net debt has been reduced to below £140m from £194m in June.

Charter has resolved the dispute with US loan noteholders that brought legal action against it, alleging default under the loan notes. With that uncertainty out of the way, analysts believe the shares have further to go.

The Footsie plotted an irregular course. Up 10.7 points at the outset, it was off 24 at midday before closing 9.2 points better at 4390.6. The discovery of ricin in a Senate building in Washington re-ignited fears about terrorism and Wall Street opened 42 points off.

Sterling advanced to $1.8365, while the euro held at 68.3p and $1.2552.

Scottish & Newcastle, Britain's last independent brewer, was the toast of the Footsie, rising 13 1/2p to 412 1/2p on continuing takeover speculation. S&N soared last week on heavy turnover amid rumours of an imminent cash bid in the region of 500p.

Private equity firms and South Africa's SABMiller are in the frame. Drinks analysts to a man believe S&N is vulnerable and others will appear once an offer is put on the table.

Number-one supermarket Tesco improved 2 3/4p to 243 1/2p after chairman John Gardiner bought 41,015 shares at 241 3/4p. Somerfield, in which Icelandic retailer Baugur holds 3.6%, gained 6p to 164 1/2p on revived bid hopes.

Housebuilder Crest Nicholson rose 10p to 333p, excited by the appearance of property entrepreneur Jack Petchey on its share register with 3.1%. He joins Gerald Ronson, who raised his holding to 12.5%. A full takeover bid should not be too far away.

Awaiting nil-premium bid terms from Group 4 Falck, Securicor rose 3p more to 118 1/2p. Revived talk of an imminent cash offer from founder Tom Singh left fashion group New Look 6 1/2p up at 333 1/2p.

Second-quarter figures at the top end of market expectations helped internet filtering company Surfcontrol touch 575p before closing 18 1/2p higher at 540p. It has £45m cash in the bank and with the shares standing at a big discount to US rival Websense, dealers say they are cheap.

Buying in belated response to new broker Corporate Synergy's successful placing of 10m shares at 6 1/2p, web-based training company ITrainchugged 1/4p higher to 9p. Trading in the second half has been strong.

Forbidden Technologies jumped 6 1/2p to 46 1/2p after signing an agreement with Mediaconcept, set up to promote and develop FT's new generation of online and mobile video streaming products in the Italian market.

TradingSports Exchange Systems, the Aim-listed betting systems group, improved 1p to 72 1/2p. It launched BetonSports, where punters bet against each other rather than with a bookmaker, at the weekend to coincide with the Super Bowl. It handled more than £980,000 of match bets on that game alone and signed up 500 customers. Evolution says buy and has a target price of 100p.

Placed on Aim at 5p, cash shell Camelot Capital closed at 6p following turnover of 2.6m. With Jeremy Peace, chairman of West Bromwich Albion, as non-executive chairman and Guy Sangster of the renowned racing family a non-executive director, dealers believe deals will flow.

Trafficmaster closed in top gear at 92p, up 6p, after its Smartnav satellite navigation system was adopted by Europcar and Virgin Atlantic. Richard Branson's airline will install it in some 300 vehicles that transport Virgin Upper Class passengers to and from UK airports.

Aim-listed Sinclair Pharma rose 8p to 156 1/2p after gaining EU approval for its Atopiclair and Xclair creams used to treat dermatitis and eczema.

MOVE over cyberbabe Lara Croft. Catwoman is creeping up behind you and shares of Argonaut Games (unchanged at 7 1/2p) should soon begin to purr. The UK developer is working on a computer game based on Warner Bros' summer action movie Catwoman for publisher Electronic Arts.

Production is well under way. With beautiful Oscar winner Halle Berry set to play the lead, the game could be a bestseller.