Market report: Friday close

INVESTORS bought into

Bank stocks fell on growing international fears about lending to crisis-torn Argentina. HBOS slipped 6p to 783p. But Standard Chartered climbed another 12 1/2p to 822 1/2p on reheated talk that the group will attract a multi-billion-pound bid in the New Year. US giant Citigroup has been tipped as a potential buyer.

BT fell 3p to 246 1/2p, on news that telecom regulator Oftel wants to boost the provision of broadband services by allowing allow operators to combine their networks with BT's.

Media group Pearson fell 16p to 756 1/2p after Goldman Sachs downgraded it to 'market outperform'. Spirent, the telecoms equipment firm, rose 2 3/4p to 155 1/2p after Goldman raised its target price to 185p. UBS Warburg set Carphone Warehouse a price target of 145p but it fell 5 1/2p to 128p.

Ahead of a triple-witching hour in New York the London market underwent its own muted version on the twin expiry of December options. Dealers took this as a sign that there were not too many problems in the market. With some dealers already away from their desks or simply trying to square their books, volumes were running very low - at under 500m. The FTSE-100 index at the close was up 79.0 at 5159.2.

Penny share speculators were out in force for Centamin as the Australian exploration company began life on the Alternative Investment Market. Investors are pinning their hopes on Sukari Hill in Egypt, discovered from a treasure map drawn up 3200 years ago by King Seti I, father of Rameses II. Analysts estimate that the hill contains 1.7m ounces of gold. Centamin will use opencast mining methods in its hunt. Centamin shares, placed at 6p by broker Williams de Broë, opened with a 1 3/4p premium at 7 3/4p.

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.

The Daily Mail's Geoff Foster on yesterday's trade

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