Market report: Friday close

RUPERT Murdoch's

The satellite broadcaster is believed to have offered the same price as last time but in exchange wants to double the number of Premiership games broadcast. Brokers say the deal is likely to fall foul of the EU, which wants to open the games to a wider audience.

The Premier League, which was meeting bosses of the 20 member clubs today, has already increased the number of broadcasting packages from three to four, and BSkyB is expected to obtain the premier gold and silver packages - giving it the pick of the matches.

Meanwhile, broker Credit Suisse First Boston has raised its target price on BSkyB from 660p to 820p ahead of its full-year results due next week. The figures are expected to reveal a surge in subscriber numbers. Brokers forecast that adjusted pre-tax profits would be between £230m and £235m, compared with a loss of £22m in 2002.

Share prices made headway after a slow start. The FTSE 100 index ended uo 52.2 points to 4147.8. The Dow opened 27.31 points higher at 9153.76 in New York this afternoon.

Shares in London Stock Exchange were up 2 1/4p at 322 1/4p despite a 10% decline in equity trades during July to 4.81m. The value of trades slumped from £461bn to £314bn.

Shell rose 6 1/2p to 399p in heavy turnover of 104m shares. That followed a cross in 39.5m shares at 399 1/2p. BP was up 10 1/2p at 435 3/4p. Barclays gained a further 3p to 480p on further consideration of yesterday's profit numbers. US securities house Morgan Stanley has upgraded from equal weight to overweight and raised its target price from 420p to 510p while Deutsche Bank has moved from sell to hold with a target of 475p. US investment bank JP Morgan has gone from neutral to overweight and raised its target from 480p to 530p, and Lehman Brothers has moved to overweight and raised its target price from 500p to 535p.

BHP Billiton rose 3p to 377p on the back of a drilling report from its Neptune 5 appraisal well in the Gulf of Mexico. The find was said to be significantly bigger than those recorded in nearby wells. Meanwhile, workers at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, in which it has a near-60% stake, have gone on strike. The threat of industrial action at the world's biggest copper mine had driven up the price of copper to a 30-month high.

Mining giant Anglo American, which includes De Beers diamond mines, jumped 10p to 1100p. Profits rose $840m (£519m) to $856m - the top end of brokers' forecasts. But the company warned that trading conditions remained tough in the second half. AA this week confirmed plans to bid for the Ashanti mining company in Ghana.

Radstone Technology climbed 26p to 310p. The supplier of computer products and support software for the defence industry is raising £10m via a placing and open offer at 280p. It wants the money to finance the acquisition of Interactive Circuits & Systems.

Eurodis Electron fell 5 1/2p to 23p after plunging into the red last year and announcing plans to raise almost £18m by a placing and open offer at 20p.

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.