Market report: Thursday close

PUBS operator

He has been building his stake since June, paying between 135p and 165p a share, and currently has 10%. He now wants to buy an extra 4.79m shares. If Cannon does eventually decide to make a bid he will have to win over the controlling Pope family, which still owns 30% of the shares. At these levels, Eldridge Pope is valued at more than £40m.

Cannon's decision to take a stake in the Dorset company follows the departure of chief executive Michael Johnson in June. That also scuppered a bid from rival Wolverhampton & Dudley, unmoved on 705p. Susan Barratt, who moved up from finance director to replace Johnson, wants to know why Cannon is stakebuilding and is telling shareholders to take no action. Cannon is reckoned to have amassed a £120m fortune from building up and selling the likes of Devenish and the Magic Pub Company.

Elsewhere in the drinks sector, Diageo rose 5 1/2p to 643p after UBS repeated its buy rating on the shares and 760p target price. It says the recent underperformance of the shares is unjustified.

The rest of the market followed the lead of New York overnight and posted modest gains in early trading. But the FTSE 100 failed to hold its gains, and ended up 25.2 points at 4095.6 ahead of Wall Street's open.

Sentiment was helped early on by strong interim numbers from Barclays, 41p better at 477p. Pre-tax profits came in above even the most optimistic forecast, supported by a reduction in bad debt provisions. Chief executive Matt Barrett says the group's strategy is on target.

Standard Chartered, which reported yesterday, rose 12 1/2p to 787p. UBS has repeated its neutral stance on the shares but has raised its 12-month target price from 760p to 800p.

Better than expected profits news lifted publisher Reed Elsevier 13p to 482p.

It was the first day of trading on AIM for Micap, the drugs and food flavouring specialist. Placed at 55p by broker Bell Lawrie White, the shares traded at 59 1/2p.

Also on AIM, Fayrewood rose 3 1/2p to 79p, despite record profits and news of a fund-raising exercise. It plans to raise £1.6m by placing 2.3m shares at 69p. Broker Arbuthnot rates the shares a buy.

Stanley Leisure lost an early lead to trade 6p lower at 341 1/2p following the Government's review of the gambling industry.

There seems to be no stopping Irish gold miner Minmet, up 1.48p at 5.37p on turnover of 60m shares, after its bullish update on its 50%-owned venture in Sweden. Tiger Resources, up 0.63p at 1.875p, owns 31m Minmet shares worth £1.86m. That compares with Tiger's own stock market value of £3m.

Celtic Resources topped 300p for the first time with a rise of 8 1/2p to 306 1/2p. It has been meeting institutional investors in France and the UK.

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.