Lightweight Punch falls flat

BLOW away the froth, and the

Growing doubts about the listing had clouded sentiment before the firm's late night announcement that it had withdrawn the float. Rival operator Enterprise Inns was down 19 1/2p at 753 1/2p. Investors also fretted about other floats. HMV's sale has already flopped, with the shares, down 2 1/4p to 174 3/4p, well shy of the 192p issue price. Bookie William Hill's share issue is already under way, but will GUS rein in its plans to float off fashion house Burberry by the end of next month?

After BSkyB, it was Pearson's turn for a drop on fears of a placing. The talk was that Spain's Telefonica was about to place 39m shares, its entire 4.85% stake. Pearson, down 18 1/2p to 828 1/2p, dismissed this as speculation.

The talk came hot on the heels of a major placing of Sky shares by Vivendi Universal. BSkyB rallied 16p to 726p. Broker UBS Warburg raised its target price from 880p to 890p and repeated its 'buy' rating.

British Airways soared 5 1/2p to 230p on forecast-beating results from rival Lufthansa. The German airline reported a 140% leap in first-quarter operating profits, helped by cost cuts since 11 September. Air France reported results at the top of the range on Monday, boosting hopes that airlines' recovery is progressing and that BA's full-year results, due on Monday, will be better than expected.

The FTSE 100, up 19.6 points to 5259.1, finished higher for the fourth consecutive day, with pharmaceutical and telecoms stocks among the biggest gainers. It held on to its gains, despite a weaker opening on Wall Street. Sterling rose nearly a cent to $1.4567. The euro held steady at 62.3p and rallied half a US cent to 90.8 cents.

AstraZeneca rose 110p to 3220p after an upbeat assessment of its new cholesterol-beating Crestor drug from broker Goldman Sachs. AZ chief executive Tom McKillop said he still sees Crestor taking 20% of the market for cholesterol-lowering medicines, despite a delay in US approval.

Anglo-Irish group Green Property, target of a mystery suitor, was up 7 1/2p to 572 1/2p. The approach came 18 months after boss Stephen Vernon tried to put together a management buyout. Analysts are puzzled at who is behind the current approach. John Atkins at broker HSBC rules out British Land. John Ritblat's firm has about 1% of its portfolio in Ireland, and knows the market reasonably well. But Atkins says BL has been under fire for getting big for the sake of getting big and an acquisition at this stage would be 'suicide'.

The dramatic sell-off in railway contractors looks to have no signs of stopping. Jarvis, at the centre of the Potters Bar derailment inquiry, slumped 53 1/2p to 334p. Before the crash, it was worth 520p. Carillion fell 7 1/2p to 208 1/2p, despite an annual general meeting statement that this year's outlook is encouraging. But Balfour Beatty rallied 10 1/2p to 250p.

WMRC, the economic forecaster for government agencies and big corporates, lifted 2 1/2p to 11p. First-quarter sales shot up 67%. Tullow Oil was up 4 1/2p to 110p with 6.4m shares traded. SocGen was a major buyer. Two overhanging tranches of stock were taken out. Sentiment was helped by news from Bangladesh, where it operates on behalf of joint venture partners.

Today sees the start of dealings in Property Fund Management, which does what it says on the tin. It plans to raise £5m and aims to have £1bn of funds under management by the year-end.