Geest gives food for thought

GEEST gave dealers plenty of food for thought. The provider of ready-made supermarket salads and fruits rose 25p to 520p on rumours that a mouthwatering deal could be on the menu. Punters had their appetites whetted by early gossip that major rival

Northern Foods has been building up a war chest by selling unwanted businesses. It recently unloaded its loss-making Minsterley desserts factory to rival Uniq for £16.5m and could have its sights set on Geest and its 12% share of the ready-made meals market.

Joe Public's current fixation on keeping fit and eating the right foods to lose weight is a good sign for Geest. However, it continues to suffer from downward price pressure from its supermarket customers. Climbing into bed with Northern Foods would help the enlarged group to prosper in a market currently worth about £6.9bn at retail sales value.

Adding to the bullish flavour was gossip that Geest might benefit as McDonald's broadens its menu to include more salad-based products.

Geest already supplies it with lettuce in four European countries and any increase in orders from the huge fast-food chain would give profits a major boost.

Heavyweight Vodafone brought the Footsie to its knees, falling 6 3/4p to 128 3/4p following in-line full-year profits. With every 1p price movement in the mobile phone giant accounting for three points on the index, the Footsie fell 32 points at one stage before closing 10.9 off at 4418.0. On Wall Street, the Dow surged 159.1 to 10,117.6 as oil slipped back.

Sterling jumped to $1.81, while the euro eased to 66.7p and $1.2096.

Property giant Land Securities climbed 32p to 1120p amid speculation it has at last signed up a Footsie company to take most of its massive office block at 30 Gresham Street, which has been vacant for months.

Gresham St is the biggest development in the heart of the Square Mile and it would give the entire City office letting market a lift should LandSecs tie up a deal. Lloyds TSB ( 3/4p dearer at 424 1/2p) had one foot in the front door and then walked away.

A stonking oil price and a revival of takeover chatter lifted gas explorer and producer BG Group 8 3/4p to 338 3/4p. Both Total of France and Shell (5 1/2p up at 399p) have been mentioned in the same breath as BG in recent weeks, though analysts say 'non'.

Overnet Data, which on Thursday soared on news of the reverse takeover of US biotech and engineering company Futura- Gene, plummeted to 81p on a bear raid. It later rallied to close only 4p off at 97 1/2p. Futura-Gene has patented a process that allows crops to be irrigated by sea water. US brokers have shown plenty of interest and are queuing up to help OD management get the stock quoted on Nasdaq.

Toys and games developer Character Group fell 7 1/2p to 81 1/2p on rumours of a pending heavily-discounted rights issue.

Ten Alps Communications improved 1p to 38 1/4p following its £0.4m acquisition of TV documentary maker Blakeway Productions.

The bullish tenor of chairman Bernard Cragg's AGM address helped media group Datamonitor firm 3 1/2p to 120p. The current year has started well with like-for-like sales up 10%. Profits will be significantly ahead.

Transport company BidCorp motored 2 1/4p ahead to 19 1/2p after agreeing a £49.6m cash offer at 20p a share from 58.6% shareholder Bidvest.

Aim-listed software group Bond International rose 4p to 49 1/2p. Following its acquisition of EZaccess software, the initial uptake by EZaccess clients has exceeded expectations.

Flat screen maker NXT added 4p at 74 1/2p on hearing that TVR, a specialist sports car manufacturer, will use its audio full range products on four models.

Trafficmaster edged forward 1 3/4p to 76p after the giant Ford Motor Company became the 17th manufacturer to sign up Smartnav, its advanced satellite navigation system, for all models across its range from June 7.