Market report: Thursday close

STOCK market bulls were feeling the heat today as takeover favourite

Like-for-like sales at the furniture retailer totalled £444m for the period from Boxing Day to yesterday, a 4% increase, but analysts were unimpressed. Nick Bubb, retail analyst at broker Evolution Securities, said the update was 'slightly disappointing'. UK sales have grown just 2% despite pricecutting.

'Sales growth at joinery arm Howden is also disappointing,' Bubb said. But he is sticking with his full-year pre-tax profit forecast of £85m, which he describes as a 'pretty limitedî recovery from the £59m of 2004.

Broker Seymour Pierce says the performance may disappoint some bulls. US securities house Goldman Sachs has repeated its underperform rating but reckons the group has delivered a reasonable trading performance at a time when the UK consumer is becoming more cautious.

The business is stabilising but continues to face challenges on the costs and margin side, which Goldman reckons are not adequately reflected in the valuation.

Biofuels, which plans to produce eco-friendly diesel from materials such as rapeseed, touched 283p on the back of yesterday's bullish annual meeting statement. It told shareholders it can make a profit of £30m a year from its plant being built on Teesside, which will be the biggest in Europe.

That compares with the group's stock market price tag of about £80m. But the shares came tumbling back to trade 9½p cheaper at 244p on whispers it may be planning to raise extra cash via a placing of new stock. The company floated last June at around 60p.

The FTSE 100 index made its way back over 5,000 closing 22.0 points higher at 5,014.8, supported by opening gains for the Dow on Wall Street this afternoon.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca led blue-chips higher with an increase of 79p to 2152p, helped by reassuring comments on fat-busting drug Crestor. The US Food and Drug Administration says the risk of muscle degeneration from using Crestor is no greater than that of any similar treatment. Credit Suisse First Boston raised its recommendation from underperform to neutral and its target from 1950p to 2250p. It says the outcome was the best Astra could have hoped for.

French broker SG Securities does not expect a bidding war for London Stock Exchange. It has told clients that Euronext, which owns the Paris bourse and London financial futures market, will win the day with an offer of between 530p to 600p. That does not leave much scope for improvement on the current price, which rose 11p to 541p, against a 530p indicative offer from Deutsche Borse.

J Sainsbury firmed another ½p to 291½p on talk the Weston family behind AB Foods, unmoved on 1½p lower at 766p, wants to bid. Traders have been paying a 3p premium for the March out-of-the-money 297p traded options series.

Housebuilder Country & Metropolitan added 2p to 282½p following yesterday's news it had received a bid approach. City whispers claim the bidder is Persimmon, down 10½p at 764p.

HBOS fell 4½p to 832p as investors continued to ponder yesterday's record profits and £750m share buyback. The mortgage lender wasted little time getting the buyback under way, picking up 2.5m shares at a tad over 833p.