Jarvis hits buffers on lawsuit fears

THE sense of crisis around Railtrack contractor

Jarvis slumped 42 1/2p to 387 1/2p on fears of potentially disastrous lawsuits as questions emerged over the maintenance of the points that caused the derailment. The shares have lost more than £1 in 48 hours, wiping £140m - or 20% - off the group's value. Rival contractors continued to suffer in sympathy. Balfour Beatty tumbled 19 1/2p to 239 1/2p, Carillion lost 4 1/2p to 216p.

Satellite operator BSkyB rose 28p to 710p after Vivendi Universal's longawaited sale of its 13% stake. The £1.7bn placing by brokers Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs at 670p was heavily oversubscribed.

A strong opening on Wall Street for the second day running helped the FTSE 100 to rise 34.7 points to 5239.5. Sterling fell more than a cent to $1.4480 and the euro dipped to 62.3p and 90.3 US cents.

Better news in the US chip sector gave UK techs and telecoms a fillip. Battered former BT division mmO2 led the advance, rising 3 1/2p to 48p, with Vodafone up 5 3/4p to 108 1/2p. Cable & Wireless was 7 1/4p to the good at 206 1/4p, raising hopes that chief executive Graham Wallace may pull something out of the hat at its full-year results today.

Commercial property was in focus after Ireland's Green Property revealed an approach from a mystery suitor who, subject to certain conditions, would be prepared to make an offer 'at a modest premium' to the current share price. Green jumped 25p to 565p, valuing it at £582m.

Is property beginning to attract a greater share of investor attention? Legal & General thinks it should. After performing poorly in 1990-92, when equities boomed 25% and UK property returns slumped 7.5%, it fell out of sight and out of mind. Now L&G thinks it could be a realistic alternative to shares and bonds. Its economist, Andrew Clare, thinks the recent strength of the economy has not yet fed through into rental income - generally subject to an 'upward-only review' after five years. He is smacking his lips at the potential for rising income

BP added 16p to 606p, with Shell up 14p to 530p. They were among the best blue-chip performers thanks to the rise in the oil price driven by a combination of Opec saying no more oil is needed next month and a bullish International Energy Agency market report. Brent crude topped $27 a barrel, rallying sharply after initial weakness on relief that there had been no fresh violence in the Middle East.

Unilever fell 17p to 642p after Merrill Lynch placed 22m shares at 647p on behalf of a US institution. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant passes its dividend qualifying date today.

Investors got their teeth into catering giant Compass, up 9p to 447p, after it announced a 10-year contract to supply food and vending services to Boeing in the US. With an extension to an earlier deal with Boeing, this is worth £30m a year

Defence and aerospace group Cobham, down 2 1/2p to 1137 1/2p, denied reports it had been stakebuilding in Chemring, which has taken a beating on a strongly-denied report that it tried to sell landmines to an undercover reporter. Chemring was up 5p to 344 1/2p on hopes that Cobham may bid.

Pubs company Old Monk was looking green around the gills, down 12p to 62p, after it warned of a £2.1m book loss on the sale of seven sites. It is pinning its hopes on its Springbok Sports Bars formula, with plans to concentrate on the roll-out of this brand and change the company name to Springbok Bars.