Market report: Friday close

SHARES in

Word is a leading venture capitalist group has made a bid approach, valuing the company, which makes engine hosing for car giants Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, at about £40m, or 145p a share.

There will be winners all round for the long-awaited order for the US Joint Strike Fighter being announced late today. Boeing and Lockheed were waiting to find out from the Pentagon who has won the order worth up to $200bn (£141bn) that will form the backbone of the US Air Force and its allies for the next 30 years.

It will be the culmination of a four-year multi-million pound campaign by both US groups to win the world's biggest defence order. A total of 3,000 aircraft are needed for the world's air forces, costing $35m each. Both Boeing's X-32A prototype and Lockheed's X-35A are supersonic, perform short take-offs and landings and are difficult to detect.

BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce have hedged their bets with a foot in both camps for orders. The spin-off for these two is estimated to be even bigger than that given to them in the Eurofighter contract. The British Government has also cleverly involved itself by putting up $2bn to support the US Joint Strike Fighter programme.

Rolls-Royce shares added 5 3/4p to 153p and BAE Systems climbed 10 1/4p to 341p. They will benefit from millions of dollars worth of orders, whoever wins. There will also be orders for Smiths Group, up 30p at 685p, and Cobham, up 27 1/2p at 1050p.

The cynical in the market were saying we must be heading for a recession when two economists agree that we are not. Earlier this week the Item group of soothsayers said we were heading for 2% growth next year, and now the National Institute of Economic and Social Research is predicting a similar figure for 2002.

Overnight in New York the Dow Jones climbed by 1.25% to end the session at its highest since 11 September. It opened stronger today and helped the FTSE 100 maintain its all-day positive stance. By the close of trading, the FTSE 100 Index had shot up 102 points to 5188.6, marking the end of a generally upbeat week, which saw the index gain more than 170 points net.

A shock profits warning from housebuilder Wilson Connolly sent its shares down 17 1/2p to 137 1/2p and provided an overdue cooler for the sector as a whole. Barratt Developments fell 23 1/2p to 315p, Berkeley Group shaded 18p to 544p, McCarthy & Stone moved down 10p to 255p, Westbury declined by 3p to 231p, Bovis Homes slipped 20p to 325p, Countryside Properties lost 12 1/2p at 139p and Redrow was down 4 1/2p at 226 1/2p.

Airports operator BAA, off 26 1/2p to 548 1/2p, was the FTSE 100's leading faller on concerns surrounding half-year results due on Monday. Brokers are expecting flat normalised profits at about £335 million, but it is the possibility of a bleak outlook statement which was unnerving investors.

Hopes that the US Food and Drug Administration will shortly approve the migraine drug being developed by biotech group Vernalis lifted its shares by 12% to 160p, a relieving 18p gain from its low of 90p last month.

Scottish & Newcastle was talking to analysts last night. They came away predictably cheerful, and S&N shares added 6p to 516p as it confirmed a £260m cash sale of 456 leased pubs to a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, up 22p to 1689p. The sale takes S&N's directly owned estate down to fewer than 50 pubs.

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Today's gainers and fallers
Geoff Foster of the Daily Mail on yesterday's trading