Footsie hits a new peak despite upsets in the US

OUCH! Infamous bear trader Simon Cawkwell, the self-styled 'Evil Knievil, is feeling the pain. He is sitting on a stonking loss of more than £1m on his long-standing short position in

Early last month, Cawkwell admitted on the UK-Analyst.com website that he was £600,000 down after shorting 6m shares - selling stock he does not own in the hope of buying shares back at a lower price later - in the belief that the struggling company would eventually go belly up. That was when Regus was trading at 35 1/4p.

'I've taken a pasting,' said Cawkwell. 'But until there is real earnings coming through, I am staying short. Today's rise is a pointless ramp. Every time Regus has raised fresh cash in the past, chief executive Mark Dixon has quickly gone out and spent it.'

Cawkwell's pronouncement that a company is overvalued usually decimates its value in minutes. Not this time. Broker KBC Peel Hunt was happy to underwrite a one-for-three rights issue at 28p to raise £55m, about £28m of which will go towards settling claims by US creditors.

The issue was four times oversubscribed with some new high- quality institutional investors apparently keen to get a piece of the action in what they now see as a good recovery play.

Long-time stalker Indigo Capital has decided not to proceed with an offer and has sold its entire 10.99% stake in Regus to ICE SAS.

The Footsie roared away to touch a 15-month high of 4406.8 before elevenses, but later succumbed to profit-taking. It closed 1.8 points better at 4373.0.

Wall Street's early 56-point fall following disappointing third-quarter figures from giant retailer Wal-Mart and a widening of the US trade deficit for the first time in six months gave traders every reason to be cautious.

Buying on further consideration of the third- quarter figures helped Randgold Resources sparkle at 1533p, up 98p. Broker Evolution says buy and points out that it remains the only gold share in the FTSE All-Share index available to tracker funds.

Reports that BrokerTec Futures Exchange is to close as a result of falling transatlantic volumes left ICAP 36p up at 1445p. Broker Numis said BrokerTec is a fully electronic fixed-income exchange that hoped to rival the Chicago Board of Trade.

It had the technology, but it never had the liquidity to succeed. ICAP has both the technology and liquidity. Buy ahead of results on 25 November.

P&O nosedived 27 3/4p to 257 3/4p after the shipping group said that continued weakness in its ferry business during the peak third-quarter season was offsetting strong progress in its ports division.

Transport equipment company Syltone jumped 38p to 181 1/2p in response to a recommended 185p-a-share cash bid from US peer Gardner Denver.

Aim- quoted Bond International advanced 5 1/2p to 50 1/2p following recruitment company MPS Group's decision to extend an order for its Adapt software.

Dmatek, the provider of electronic monitoring technologies, gained 5p to 77 1/2p after adding more than £700,000 to its revenue pipeline via the extension of two Elmo-Tech-s European programs.

Broker Walker, Crips, Weddle, Beck firmed 4 1/2p to 131p after announcing a return to profits at the halfway stage. Chairman Graham Kennedy says the improvement in trading has continued into the second-half.

Peter Hambro Mining rose 20 1/2p to 364p following a successful US roadshow. Broker HSBC says buy and has a target price of 425p.

Thistle Mining soared 6 1/2p to 22p on the discovery of two significant resource blocks in the Eldorado Reef Package at the President Steyn complex in South Africa.

THERE should be some action today in Aim-quoted Base Group, unchanged at 0.28p. It is now a cash shell company after selling its soccer agent businesses, Time Management Global and Base Soccer Agency, to Base Sport, a newly-formed company of which Leon Angel, a former Base director, has a majority stake. Base now has £500,000 cash in the bank and no ongoing overheads. Watch this space.