French Connection out of fashion

SHARES of

Not only did the sale mean that he lost control of the company he started 32 years ago - his shareholding reduced from 51% to about 42% - but it also sparked fears in the City about trading. FC accompanied his sale with confirmation of a weak performance in UK retail.

Standing around 460p before Marks' sale, the share price is now in tatters. The stock came under renewed selling pressure yesterday and slumped to 347p before closing 33p lower at 361p.

Rumours that a leading analyst is about to slash his profit forecasts, following a bearish article in an influential trade magazine which quoted a couple of wholesale customers talking about fatigue with the FCUK logo, had investors running for the exit again.

Should the FCUK slogan be running out of steam, it spells bad news for FC. But Iain McDonald at Numis Securities is relaxed. He moved to buy from hold and is still comfortable with his current year pre-tax profit forecast of £43m. True, retail has had a weak first half, but this has been offset by strong US and wholesale.

Confirmation that Kevin Stanford, co-founder of the Karen Millen fashion chain, has acquired entrepreneur Shami Ahmed's stake in Moss Bros and now holds 28.1% of the penguin suit hirer, lifted Moss 1 1/2p to a year's high of 83 1/2p.

Moss Bros said Stanford owned 5.1m shares in his own name and had bought the rights to an additional 20.7m shares through contract for differences held by spread-betting firm and broker Cantor Fitzgerald. CFDs give Stanford only voting rights over the stock and the right to acquire interest from them.

Talk that the current summer sale has been a success accompanied a 26p gain to 1488p in Next.

Buyers were back in town for blue chips following pleasing results from insurance giant Prudential (6p dearer at 439p) and drugs giant Glaxo-SmithKline (17p up at 1088p).

The Footsie closed 37.9 points up at the day's best of 4324.9 after Wall Street raced 75 points ahead at the opening following a surprise jump in US consumer confidence in July. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped to 106.1 in July - from a revised 102.8 in June - a two-year high.

AstraZeneca, which last week reported better-than-expected second-quarter figures, jumped 40p to 2420p. Citigroup Smith Barney upgraded to buy from hold and raised its target price to £28 from £27.

Luton and Cardiff airports operator TBI lost 2p to 64 1/4p on a profits warning following the decision of struggling package tour operator MyTravel (0.05p off at 6.80p) to slash the size of its aircraft fleet.

TBI said that will affect Cardiff airport and lead to a shortfall in profits of about £600,000 for the year to next March. Profits for the following year will be hit by £2m.

French construction company Vinci last week sold its remaining 10% stake in TBI at 64 1/2p. Those institutions which took the stock will not want to see any more turbulence.

Inventory management services group Infast plummeted 3 3/4p to 19 1/2p after reporting a swing into a hefty £5.3m loss at the half-way stage, against a profit of £1.5m. The dividend is halved to 0.4p.

Dire full-year figures and plans to delist the shares saw AIM Group, which makes interiors and equipment for aircraft cabins, nosedive 12 1/2p to 67 1/2p. The company plans to give minority holders the opportunity to sell their holding by offering 75p per share.

Recruitment company Longbridge gained 2 1/2p to 85p following doubled interim profits.

Dana Petroleum gushed 9 1/2p to 326p after buying an additional 53% in the Barbara gas-condensate field from Amerada Hess for £41m.