Cyberbabe Lara could get zapped by American raider

COMPUTER games heroine Lara Croft is being stalked. As the big noises of the industry converged on Los Angeles this week for the E3 trade show, rumours have been rife that

Up a sprightly 11p on Tuesday, shares of the video games publisher advanced to a year's peak of 184p before succumbing to the general dull trend to finish 2p off at 175p.

The name in the frame is THQ, the US games distributor and publisher. It is believed to be ready to table an offer comprising cash and shares, which will value Eidos at around 280p per share, or £390m.

A stakebuilding operation has been under way since early March. It has lifted the Eidos share price from 125p.

In April, the company demanded that GNI, a London-based derivatives broker which had acquired more than a 5% holding, should reveal the identity of the investor behind the share purchases. No chance.

Dealers believe THQ wants to swallow Eidos to take a leading position in the consumer electronics business ahead of the arrival of two new hardware platforms - Sony's PSP, its first mobile gaming device, and Microsoft's new version of its Xbox games console.

Speculation that Argonaut Games is holding informal takeover discussions left a close of 7 1/4p, up 1/2p. Chief executive Jez San holds 42.6% and could decide to take it private.

Argonaut has £4.5m in cash and tied up a publishing deal this year with US giant Electronic Arts to help develop the game Catwoman, ahead of the summer release of the Warner Bros movie starring Halle Berry and Sharon Stone.

Already friendless after the Bank of England's quarterly inflation report forecast higher UK interest rates, the Footsie fell away towards the close when Wall Street plummeted 159 points in early trading.

Renewed selling in New York reflected concern that a $40-plus a barrel oil price will stoke inflation and become a drag on economic growth. News that the US trade deficit ballooned to a record $46bn in March, coupled with the harrowing events in Iraq, also deterred investment enterprise. The Footsie lost 41.8 points to 4412.9.

Sterling rallied to $1.7748, while the euro eased to 67p and $1.1905.

Tracker funds made their presence felt following the quarterly review of US broker Morgan Stanley's Capital Index. Although the changes do not take effect until May 28, buyers moved in on all of the promoted stocks. Best performers were Trinity Mirror, 10p up at 618 1/2p, support services group Intertek 11 3/4p up at 521p and motor dealer Inchcape up 41p to 1541p.

Eyebrows were raised when a line of 10m shares in Australian asset manager HHG were traded at 42p before the market opened. Perhaps an institution was jumping ship. The close was 1 1/2p better at 43 1/2p after directors Roger Yates and Nicholas Hiscock bought 200,000 and 60,000 respectively at 43p.

Peter Hambro Mining, the Russian goldminer, slumped to 396 1/2p before closing 26 1/2p down at 410p. A surprise £40m fundraising - 10m shares at 400p - went down like a lead balloon. Cash raised will accelerate the company's gold production.

Down from 147 3/4p in early March, Aim-quoted drugs equipment developer Bioprogress lost 10 3/4p more to 88 1/4p. The company is said to be 'at a complete loss' as to the reason for the sharp fall. An LSE statement could be on the way.

Reflecting its strong return to profitability, gold and silver jewellery designer Abbeycrest sparkled at 70p, up 12 1/2p. Annual pretax profits of £1.9m replaced a loss of £300,000 last time.

Gresham Computing touched 321p, but closed 2p off at 315p. Word is that the forthcoming agm will be upbeat and shareholders could be told that another big bank has signed up for its Real-Time Nostro software for interbank transactions

Placed on Aim at 171p by KBC Peel Hunt, Solar Integrated Technologies raced away to 198p before closing 14p higher at 185p on its debut.

DEMERGED from Tarmac in 1998, Carillion has reinvented itself as a new services business. The Agm heard that it has disposed of its former loss-making mechanical and electrical engineering business Crown House for £17.3m. Tarmac veteran Sir Neville Simms is to step down as chairman. He first joined the company in 1970 and came in for plenty of flak when a planned £2bn merger with Aggregate Industries was suddenly aborted after a row. Shares firmed 3/4p to 168 3/4p.