Market report: Monday close

WM MORRISON, which recently acquired rival Safeway, dipped 6 1/2p to an 18-month low of 171 1/4p today as one big holder jettisoned stock.

Broker ABN Amro placed about 24m shares, or almost 1% of the company, in the market at 174p as more than 55m changed hands. Morrison, now valued at almost £5bn and rated Britain's fourth-biggest supermarkets chain, has seen its shares drop from 240p after a profits warning last month.

The group was forced to admit it has been unable to recapture many of the customers Safeway haemorrhaged prior to completion of its takeover. Today's seller was believed to be an institution. At the last count, Fidelity Investments owned 6%, Deutsche Asset Management 5% and Threadneedle Asset Management 3%.

The rest of the market buckled under the weight of Friday night's sell-off for the Dow on Wall Street. But an opening rally in New York this afternoon enabled the FTSE 100 index to halve an earlier loss and trade down 25 points at 4312.9.

Further heavy turnover was recorded in ITV with almost 30m shares traded as the price slipped a further 2 1/4p to a new low of 94 1/2p. A parcel of 2m shares went through on the ticker at 95p.

Hedge fund operator Man Group fell 6p to 1266p, despite the shares being added to the Europe 1 list of recommended companies at broker Merrill Lynch. Broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein says the shares have been oversold.

Reflecting on Friday's profits news, stockbroker UBS has raised its recommendation on Bradford & Bingley, off 1/2p at 271p, from reduce to neutral and lifted its 12-month target from 245p to 290p.

Healthcare group Smith & Nephew turned an opening deficit to a 1/2p gain at 290 1/2p in the wake of last week's disappointing trading news. Broker Credit Suisse First Boston has been telling clients the sell-off has been overdone although it has lowered its earnings forecast to reflect the cautious approach.

It continues to rate the shares outperform with a 591p target.

British Energy, down 1/4p at 19p with the A shares off 1/4p at 15 1/2p, continues to see a build-up in its ordinary shares by American investors confident they can obtain better terms from the company over its proposed refinancing.

US financier Brian Stark bought an extra 5m shares on Friday, stretching his total holding to 42.8m, or almost 7%.

Chairman Adrian Montagu said last week that British Energy had made considerable progress in agreeing its restructuring proposals. But shareholders such as Stark, US securities house Goldman Sachs and hedge fund Polygon reckon the terms are weighed too heavily in favour of the bondholders.

Biotech group Vernalis jumped 4p to 79 1/2p after extending its jointresearch programme with drugs giant Novartis, which will pay Vernalis an initial $1.5m (£814,000) towards developing a new cancer treatment.

If the research is successful and the treatment is marketed, total payments to Vernalis could reach $75m, excluding royalties.

Mean Fiddler, down 1p at 46p, has sold tickets with a face value in the region of £10m for its forthcoming Reading and Leeds music festivals.

It has sold 85,000 weekend tickets at £105 a time and 22,500 day tickets at £34 each. Acts will include The Hives, The Darkness and Morrissey.