Insider claims wipe £250m from Collins

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Sold down further to 353 1/2p at one stage, the stock closed 11p cheaper at 361p. CST is now worth £682m.

A staggering £250m has now been wiped from its market capitalisation since Middleweek made allegations of insider dealing, pushing overpriced share issues to clients, and pressurising analysts to produce overly favourable research on stocks. He is suing for wrongful dismissal and seeking damages of more than £3m.

CST denied all the allegations but some fund managers believe Terry Smith & Co have shot themselves in the foot.

'Instead of coming to some kind of private financial compromise with Middleweek, hard-nosed Smith has taken a higher-than-mighty attitude which he surely must now regret. I can see the stock easily revisiting its October 2000 flotation price of 316p unless an agreement can soon be reached,' said one fund manager.

'It has opened a can of worms and Collins Stewart Tullett's name has been tainted,' said another.

More than 3m shares changed hands yesterday amid rumours that major shareholder AXA was selling down its 3.7%stake. It appears that leading institutions will give the stock the bargepole treatment until the 'ugly' dispute is over.

Ahead of today's second anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, in which 2,645 people perished including 658 employed by Cantor Fitzgerald, the Footsie drifted 11.8 points lower to 4252.1. Wall Street traded 53 points lower, dragged down by high-tech Nasdaq which fell 32 points further following disappointing trading updates from Texas Instruments and Xilinx.

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline jumped 28p to 1299p, encouraged by Apotex Corporation's launch of a generic form of its antidepressant Paxil, which triggers GSK's license agreement with Par Pharmaceutical. GSK will supply Paxil tablets to Par for distribution in the U.S. market.

Astra Zeneca gained 21p to 2695p after buying back a further 500,000 of its own shares at 2671p.

Bats were puffed 13 1/2p higher to 642p amid continuing rumours of an imminent cash offer for RJ Reynolds, the second-largest tobacco company in the US.

Insurer Aviva lost 15p to 507 3/4p on its plan to raise £1.2bn insubordinated debt in order to boost its capital position.

Durex condom-to-Scholl footwear group SSL crashed to 286p and closed 31p down at 311 1/2p. Bid talks with an un-named party - believed to be Reckitt Benckiser - have been terminated.

Promotion to the Footsie brought a quiet response from the recently floated telephone directory business Yell, unchanged at 305p. It replaces water company Kelda, 2 1/2p dearer at 411 1/2p.

British Airways, which was a cert for promotion until chief executive Rod Eddington said on Monday that 'talk of a real recovery in the airline industry is a flight of fancy', lost 3 1/4p more to 181p.

Buying ahead of interim results lifted AIM-listed Getmapping, the Internet aerial map publisher, 2 3/4p to 12 3/4p. Mercury Recycling, a recycler of products containing mercury, jumped 2 3/4p to 12 1/4p on hearing that merger talks with a number of companies are continuing.

Newsplayer, the new media tiddler where Sir David Frost is a non-executive director, eased 5/8p to 8 3/8p. It has acquired New York-based Global Media Services, which generates its revenues by providing customers with a portfolio of professional services on the Internet.

Universal Salvage dropped 20p to 122 1/2p after warning profits for the current year will fall below market expectations.

WITH the price of gold bullion trading at a six-year high, AIM-listed Conroy Diamonds' timing couldn't have been better. It sparkled with a gain of 3 3/4p to 9 1/2p on turnover of 6m after revealing that its summer field programme in the Armagh-Monaghan Gold Belt has identified a new gold prospect with gold-in soil values. The find is the largest it has ever made in this type of rock formation.