Market report: Friday close

SCOTTISH & Southern Energy got investors hot under the collar after revealing it will fork out £250m to buy the Ferrybridge and Fiddler's Ferry power stations, as well as all fuel in transit and the contracts to supply fuel, from AEP Energy Services.

The addition of the two plants makes SSE the third-largest generator of electricity in the UK with a total capacity of 10,000 megawatts. The shares warmed up 13 1/2p to 718 1/2p.

After a week of healthy company financial results helped London's leading shares recover some of their lost ground, investors paused today to take stock.

Despite strong performances in the major Far East markets, where the Nikkei closed 208.94 points up at 11,325.78 and the Hang Seng finished 97.61 points higher at 12,280.71, the Footsie slipped 5.60 to 4413.10.

Banking stocks were out of favour, led lower by Lloyds TSB, down 1 1/2p to 412 1/4p after disappointing results. Barclays fell 7p to 460p, tarred by its association with debt-ridden engineering group Jarvis. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are leading the lending group.

Meanwhile, Abbey National was 5p lighter at 567p while Bradford & Bingley was one of the Footsie's biggest fallers, down 5 3/4p at 269p, as investors reflected concerns about the state of the housing-market.

Unilever dropped 9p to 485 1/2p as investors mulled over this week's results.

Mining groups Anglo American, up 23p at 1168p, and Rio Tinto, 22p higher at 1433p, kept the Footsie from falling too far into negative territory. British American Tobacco gained 6 1/2p to 836p after announcing it will sell its Italian distribution business Etinera for e590m.

This week it also pocketed $400m from RJ Reynolds for its rolling tobacco subsidiary Lane Ltd, as part of its tie-up with the American company.

Outside the blue-chips, Investec was rewarded for its decision to offload its Israeli subsidiary to the First International Bank of Israel. The shares were 37p ahead at 1040p as it confirmed the sale would proceed for a headline figure of £47m. Toys and camera manufacturer Character Group was 9p down at 53 1/2p, a fall of 14%, as it warned results will be below market expectations following severe problems with distribution in the US.

In March, its US distributor Uniden Digital Imaging suddenly withdrew from the market causing loss of sales and delays.

A new distributor has been appointed and the company expects the second half to be marginally profitable. It hopes to pay a dividend when full-year results are announced next month.

Shares in Proteome Sciences were dealt a severe blow when it was revealed that the American company Biosite will not be including its stroke biomarkers on its first-generation stroke panel, as they need further evaluation. Chairman Christopher Pearce put on a brave face and a further update is expected next week at the company's agm - but the shares slid 46 3/4p to 62 1/4p.

NSB Retail Systems saw its shares jump by 7% as the maker of specialist software for the retail market put out a surprise profit upgrade.

The shares rose 1 3/4p to 25 1/4p after the group said business was booming in the US and that full-year profits would be 20% higher than previously expected.