Market report: Friday close

HOUSEBUILDER

However, the shares nosedived as investors homed in on clues that the market is cooling down and picked up on ambiguities in the wording of its statement to the City. The promise of first-half results 'broadly in line with the outlook' could mean profits at the bottom of expectations.

While house prices in the North and Midlands beat budget forecasts, those in the South were merely 'in line'. And when the company says the market 'is becoming less heated', does it really mean it is going cold? Investors seemed to think so.

The shares fell 25p to 1025p as they worried that growth will be slower without double-digit house-price increases. A fuller housing picture will emerge over the next few weeks as many of the major players are due to update. They include upmarket builder Berkeley, down 6p to 901p, and Crest Nicholson, up 8 3/4p at 344 3/4p.

The Footsie took its lead from Asia, where fears about credit-tightening in China forced share prices down across all the major markets. The Footsie was initially down as traders reported a very dull start in London, but later clawed its way back to be up 10.6 at 4503.9.

Bradford & Bingley lost 3p to 274 1/2p, battered by a Merrill Lynch downgrading to neutral. Analysts said they were 'less comfortable' about revenue outlook and believed B&B was no longer such an attractive takeover target. There were falls across the banking sector with HSBC down 5p at 805p, Abbey National 5 1/2p short at 477 3/4p and Barclays off 1 1/4p at 485 1/2p.

GUS, 11p stronger at 865p, was pushed on to the Footsie leader board as UBS raised its target price from 925p to 975p. Tesco jumped 5 1/4p at 268 1/4p, as it reported sales up 11.1% in the 12 weeks to 22 May. Engineer GKN jumped 1p to 241 3/4p as investors learned it has been put on Morgan Stanley's Top 10 Picks list. Its place is at the expense of BP, up 5 1/2p at 496p.

White-van rental group Northgate was driven up 15p to 680p as rumours of a bid gained credibility. But with no acknowledgement from the company and some analysts privately hinting that Northgate had poured cold water on the idea, it might be wise to apply the brakes on this one.

Rob Lawes, chief executive of Bob the Builder group Hit Entertainment, ploughed into the market by exercising his right to buy 390,000 shares under company share option schemes for 68.66p a time. As the shares added 5p to reach 215p, Lawes was looking at a paper profit of 150p a share, or £586,000. Not bad for a company whose shares yesterday lost 83p on news that Wal-Mart was to scale back drastically the number of the firm's products that it stocks.

Quintain Estates was up 2p at 427p on the back of good news about its Greenwich regeneration development. The company, which also owns development land around the new Wembley stadium, reports full-year results next week.

Genetic pig breeding company Sygen fell 4 3/4p to 40p as it revealed second-half trading has been below market expectations.

Ocean Power Technologies was up 2p at 78 1/2p as it successfully launched one of its hi-tech PowerBuoys for the US Navy off the coast of Hawaii. The company is building a wavepower station at Kaneohe Bay.