Market report: Friday close

PROCTER & Gamble's takeover of Gillette sparked a rush for the big household-brand manufacturers, today with Anglo-Dutch group

Panmure Gordon kicked off what is likely to be a rash of analyst notes telling investors what they already know: the hope of further deals will underpin the sector with Harpic maker Reckitt Benckiser the most promising candidate.

Alternatively, Reckitt has long been considered a possible buyer for another brand conglomerate, Durex and Dr Scholl sandals maker SSL, which was up 4¾p at 324¾p on the back of the P&G deal.

Deal fever was further fuelled by news that United Business Media, up 24½p at 541½p, has brought in Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to explore the possibility of selling its opinion poll division NOP World. NOP is thought to be worth only about £250m but investors took it as a sign of growing corporate confidence.

Radio group Chrysalis shot up 9¼p to 180p - more than 5% - after it emerged that fund manager Schroder Investment Management took advantage of yesterday's weak price to top up its holding by 3.785m shares, taking its stake to a hefty 23.75%.

The London Stock Exchange was down 2p at 577p as the market awaited further developments in the takeover battle. However, these pockets of corporate activity were not enough to lift an otherwise lacklustre Friday in the City.

The FTSE 100 was down 20.6 at 4832.8, dragged lower by sustained selling of heavyweight oil stocks. BP fell 4p to 529p while Shell, which reports next week, was off 2¼p at 461¼p. On Wall Street the Dow Jones opened 6.9 points higher at 10474.3.

Outdoor advertising group Maiden saw its shares slump and then rebound after warning that pre-tax profits for 2004 will be below expectations at about £7m. While still a significant improvement on last year's £5.3m, it is 12% short of the £8m the market had been expecting.

Most of the shortfall can be blamed on its poorly performing billboards division, which suffered from volatile demand and low pricing. Income from its rail division was also hit by contractual delays.

However, these disappointments were softened by a relatively strong bounceback in January, with sales 13% ahead of last year, Maiden, up 10p at 222½p claimed that by the third week of January it had already taken forward bookings equivalent to 93% of the first quarter in 2004.

Shopfitter and blackboard-maker Havelock Europa was 8½p lower 130½p as it said its school furniture division is trading more slowly than expected. It warned that any PFI project where Jarvis was involved is falling behind schedule with 2005 projects now being pencilled in for 2006 or even 2007. Teather & Greenwood slashed its forecast for 2005 to £6.2m from £7m.

Energy minnow Victoria Oil advanced 3½p to 57p. A feasibility study to be published soon is rumoured to be very positive.

Fellow Aim-listed tiddler Circle Oil today said it has struck an alliance with a Chinese giant that will see $1bn spent looking for crude in Namibia. Circle business development officer John McKeon said: 'We could be another Cairn'.

But investors took a more sceptical view and the shares tumbled, losing 15¾p to 43p.