Market report: Friday close

THE exit of

Two of them benefited from the decision, Carillion up 6 1/2p to 182p and Balfour Beatty gaining 2 1/2p to 220p. But AMEC slipped 1 1/2p to 269p and Serco fell 2p to 171p.

BP's deal with the Russians overshadowed its exit from the coal industry as it sold off its Indonesian interests for $250m (£150m).

Next week, chief executive Lord Browne will brief brokers on its ambitious £4.8bn, 50-50 joint venture with Russian oil company TNK. City favourite Browne is likely to be persuasive about the deal and the huge profits and cashflows it will release. Nevertheless, its shares fell 1 1/4p to 433 3/4p today.

BHP Billiton hit a year's high of 452p, up 1/4p on the rise in raw material prices, but Rio Tinto ran into profit-taking - having posted a 2003 best of 1420p earlier this week - with an 11p fall to 1424p.

Once the circulation of a bullish Cazenove mining review has been made alongside the blue-blood broker's roadshow in the US, there should be some rallying going on in the sector, say analysts.

Dealers were beginning to talk of the turn-of-the-year-effect in stock markets as blue-chips consolidated the gains of the past week. Since the spring there has undoubtedly been a move away from defensive stocks such as utilities, beverages, tobacco and food producers, and into cyclical shares, led by banks and other financials.

An indifferent start to trading on Wall Street did nothing to help the FTSE-100 which struggled to stay above 4300. It closed down 2.9 at 4311.0.

Among lenders, Barclays, under a cloud over corporate governance guidelines as long-time finance director John Varley takes over as chief executive from Matt Barrett - who controversially becomes chairman - enjoyed an attempted rescue by broker UBS Warburg which raised its rating to buy from neutral.

Barclays firmed 4 1/4p to 514p, still a long way from Warburg's target of 625p.

Abbey National, now renamed Abbey, jumped 31p to 574 1/2p with volume running at 21m shares on hopes for its revived concentration on mortgage business with tired old National Australia Bank bid talk in the background.

Britannic continued to rise on hopes of a bid for its insurance arm from Axa, and was 2p better at 276 1/2p.

Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of Anglo-Dutch household goods giant Reckitt Benckiser by establishing a 1350p target. The shares fell 1p to 1230p.

The rebound in equity markets has been marked by the striking performance of second-liners. They have outperformed blue-chips twice as much, an indication that an upswing in the business cycle has started.

Retailer N Brown, left behind in the recent secondary market move upwards, added 7p to 133p.

BBA was earmarked for an outperform rating by broker Gerrard, which highlighted its healthy yield of more than 4% and hopes for a US economic upturn. The shares moved up 4 1/4p to 264 1/4p.