Market report: Friday close

SUPPLIERS to MG Rover came under pressure today as the British car company entered administration.

Trafficmaster, off 1½p at 51p, has supplied 4400 navigation units to Rover this year and is owed £540,000 by the carmaker. It said its Smartnav unit sales will fall short of full-year expectations if production at Rover does not resume.

Wagon, which supplies £14m of products to Rover a year - about 3% of its sales total - has suspended supplies to the company. It is owed about £900,000. Wagon ticked 1½p lower to 174½p. Shares in St Modwen Properties, which owns most of Rover's Longbridge site, were up 2p at 372p.

However, strength among retail stocks kept the Footsie up 6.6 at 4983.6. In New York, the Dow opened on a positive note, but then took a downturn of 30.3 points to 10,516 by the time London closed.

Retail and business services group GUS made strong progress today as JP Morgan picked out its prospects as a bright spot on an otherwise gloomy horizon for UK High Street traders.

Upgrading the stock to overweight from underweight and raising its target price by 90p to 990p, the broker said recent shareprice underperformance, bleak prospects elsewhere in the sector, increased confidence because of GUS's strategic review and the possibility of a £1bn-share buyback were behind its more positive stance. GUS, which owns Argos and Experian, rose 12½p to 913⅓p.

Boots led the blue-chip index, rebounding 19p to 634½p from yesterday's losses on reports four private equity firms are looking at it.

Airlines felt the relief of a dip in oil prices, with British Airways advancing 3½p to 273¾p, Ryanair up 0.15p at 6.2p and easyJet adding 9½p to 233½p.

Scottish magnate Harry Dobson saw his latest enterprise list on Aim. Metals and mining firm Rambler, which has copper, gold and silver properties in Canada, placed 16m shares at 50p to raise £8m. They traded at 65p, off a high of 66½p.

Gulfsands Petroleum is the latest energy company to be brought to market, listing 24.3m shares at 130p on Aim to raise £29.8m. The Houston-based firm, with a market capitalisation of £120m, plans to capture natural gas produced at oilfields in southern Iraq that is currently flared, as well as producing natural gas liquids. The shares advanced to 128p.

Emergency power generators supplier Aggreko rose 11p to 202p on talk of a 240p-a-share bid.

Pinewood Shepperton was in the picture after announcing that chief executive Ivan Dunleavy has bought 8000 shares at 154p, bringing his overall share to 1,079,180, or 2.4% of the studio company. Finance director Patrick Garner bought 5000 shares at the same price. The shares were steady at 163½p, having plummeted earlier this week as it emerged that Paramount Pictures is unlikely to film The Watchmen at the studio.

Smith Barney rates Land Securities a buy and has lifted its target price to 1631p from 1600p, pushing the shares 8p higher to 1328p. The broker cut its target on property company Liberty International, off ½p at 952½p, to 1019p from 1100p.

Shares in IT consultancy group Axon rose 10½p to 228p after it announced a deal giving it access to the lucrative US aerospace and defence industry. Axon has bought American IT firm Feanix in a deal worth up to £23.4m.