Market report: Friday close

THE year's star performer among blue-chips,

The telecoms group's £900m bond issue now has a Ba3 rating, from Ba1. New C&W chairman Richard Lapthorne also came in for a lashing as Moody's warned that the decision to quit the US heightened concern over exit costs. The agency also sowed seeds of doubt about his restructuring plan and the group's ability to execute it and whether it will enhance C&W's prospects. Moody's believes the pension deficit of £578m will hurt profits. The shares fell 1/2p to 118 1/2p.

Suggestions by new Lloyds TSB chief executive Eric Daniels in the Wall Street Journal Europe that the bank might be prepared to offload Scottish Widows if he fails to turn it round lifted the shares 3/4p to 454 3/4p.

Support service shares were in favour as Dresdner Bank turned positive on the sector. Bunzl added 13 1/2p to 434p on an upgrade to buy from add. Compass Group enjoyed the same rating from the Germans and gained 1 1/2p to 329p. The broker also liked Rexam, which is in the midst of a restructuring. It rose 2p to 393p

The FTSE 100 index climbed 16.6 points to 4073.2 in thin trading as Wall Street opened higher.

Software group Misys suffered a downgrade to underperform from Credit Suisse First Boston that left it off 1/4p at 260 1/2p, ever closer to the Swiss bank's 210p target. Morgan Stanley slashed its price target for Marconi to 40p from 50p on worries about sales, leaving it 2 1/4p adrift at 66 3/4p.

Galen Holdings fell 37 1/2p to 705p amid profit-taking following gains the previous session on talk of a takeover bid from US generic drugmaker Barr Laboratories. Shire Pharmaceuticals may be the next target in the sector and it put on another 6 1/2p to 446 3/4p, building on yesterday's 3.7% gain.

Veteran British Land chairman John Ritblat saw off Laxey Partners' attempt to boot him off the board at the annual general meeting. Investors accounting for 16.6m shares, or 5.5% of the equity, voted against him or abstained. British Land added 24 1/4p to 510p.

Capita Group slipped 3 1/4p to 210 3/4p on news that its £50m contract with Norfolk County Council to supply exchequer and payroll services have been terminated.

Bid hopes for the specialised welding division of engineering group Charter helped its shares firm 3 1/2p to 77 1/2p. They have more than doubled since hitting a low of 34 1/2p in February.

Engineer Invensys rose 3 3/4p to 28p on hopes that chief executive Rick Haythornthwaite will announce the sale of its energy division at the annual meeting next Wednesday.

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.