Market report: Monday close

WOMEN'S healthcare supplier

In a timely move on Friday, founder and former president Dr Allen McClay sold 700,000 shares, almost £5m at 710 1/2p. He continues to hold a further 16m shares, or 9% of the company, worth £114m. The value of his holding has tumbled £22m while that of the company has sunk £200m to £1.09bn. McClay is reputed to be Ireland's sixth richest man. A spokesman for Galen said McClay was not associated with the company in any way.

Before the weekend, Galen shares surged on talk that either Johnson & Johnson of the US or Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands would stick in their own bids for the the Northern Irish company.

The industrial dispute by ground staff at Heathrow over the weekend could jeopardise British Airways' chances of being returned to the top 100 quoted companies in the next quarterly reshuffle.

Shares in the national carrier fell 3 3/4p to 171p, valuing it at £1.86bn. Dealers say events over the weekend were a PR disaster for the company and the dispute is far from being resolved.

Brokers say repeat action during the peak summer season could result in further haemorrhaging of funds, which will be a drain on the share price. This hit a record low of 86p in March, signalling the group's demotion again from the blue-chip companies that make up the Footsie lead index.

Britain's biggest financial services outfit, Prudential, was another casualty, falling 2 3/4p to 416 1/4p on the back of weekend reports that it plans to cut its dividend by up to 40% when final results are published next week. This, which would be the first cut in the Pru's dividend since 1914, might undermine its image as a solid income stock.

The group indicated earlier this year it may have to cut the dividend. Brokers say it is paying out more in dividends than it has coming in.

Share prices drifted lower following opening falls on Wall Street. In thin trading, the FTSE 100 index ended down 28.9 points to 4044.3.

Oil giant BP rose 3/4p to 415p after broker UBS raised its rating on the shares from neutral to buy and repeated its 12-month price target of 475p.

Morgan Crucible dipped 3p to 93 1/2p after broker Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded its rating from outperform to neutral. The shares have surged more than 200% from their low this year.

Microchip designer Arm Holdings dropped 2p to 77 3/4p despite US investment bank JP Morgan raising its fair value on the shares from 56p to 72p.

Struggling holidays operator MyTravel firmed 4 1/2p to 37 1/2p. It says talks with convertible bond holders about the group's restructuring should reach a successful conclusion. The company wants to extend the maturity of the bonds and issue an extra 128.6m shares, or 26% of the equity. Some initial estimates claimed existing shareholders' interests would be diluted by up to 50%.

AIM-listed CRC Group jumped 15p to 106 1/2p after paying £900,000 for ADP Technical Services. It says the deal will boost group earnings immediately.

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.