Market report: Friday close

OIL stocks shivered as Russia cold-shouldered Opec's production cut demands. Equity investors shudder at the prospect of crude falling to $10 a barrel if the current face-off escalates into an all-out price war.

At $19.11, the Brent benchmark had some way to go before scraping to those levels but BP, Shell and Enterprise Oil fell heavily in brisk trade for a Friday after Russia offered to turn off the taps for a paltry 50,000 barrels a day - only 20,000 more than their previous token offer.

BP, currently bidding for the contract to develop five oil and gas projects in Algeria, slid 4 1/2p to 531p, Shell shed 3 1/2p to 493 1/2p and Enterprise was off 8 1/2p at 455 1/2p.

With such a drama unfolding, the FTSE 100 index hardly stood a chance although a strong opening on Wall Street helped narrow London's losses. Down more than 100 points at one stage the Footise ended off 52.7 at 5293.2.

British Airways gained 7 1/4p to 215 1/4p on gossip the airline will sell its 22.47% stake in Australia's Qantas, although BA denied any strategic sell-offs. Perhaps that rights issue is not so inevitable after all.

Money manager Man Group enjoyed a Merrill Lynch upgrade with the US broker setting a target price of 1750p. Man rose 26 1/2p to 1265 1/2p. But a rumoured downgrade at Pearson left the media firm 48p lower at 817p. Smiths Group has been out of favour with the market, and today brought another setback with the aerospace-to-healthcare company's share price down 6 1/2p at 663 1/2p.

Investors bought into Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus, ahead 1 3/4p rise to 66p, on US efforts to persuade steelmakers to cut production to stave off a financial crisis in the industry.

Morgan Stanley trimmed its price target for Telewest Communications to 131p from 140p, but said there was 'Still lots of upside'. Telewest rose 4 1/2p to 73p.

Applied Optical Technology took on 12p to 99 1/2p on news it has won a contract to supply brand protection for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

Competition minister Melanie Johnson has referred Johnston Press's attempt to buy eight local newspapers in the East Midlands from Trinity Mirror to the Competition Commission. Trinity shares slid 2p to 426 1/2p, despite Goldman Sachs initiating coverage with a 'market performer' rating. Johnston slipped 3p to 348 1/2p.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.