Market report: Thursday close

The stake was part of a cross-holding between RBS and Santander dating back years. But the Spanish bank decided to liquidate the holding to help finance its £9bn acquisition of Abbey. Its stake had been around 5% but it began reducing this last September when it placed 69.72m shares.

RBS continues to hold about 5% of Santander. A spokesman for Santander said proceeds raised would be used for the 'overall financing of our business'.

Lloyds TSB continued to nudge towards the 500p support level with a rise of 5¾p to 490p on turnover of more than 27m shares. Brokers say the shares have broken out of their two-year trading range and continue to yield more than 7%. Talk of a bid from one of the US banks can be thrown in for nothing.

Shares generally traded in a narrow range that saw the FTSE 100 index dip 6.3 points to 4853.4 while Wall Street opened lower this afternoon.

Back in London, High Street fashion retailer Next fell 16p to 1601p after broker UBS lowered its target from 1975p to 1900p while repeating its buy recommendation.

That target revision is one of a number and will come as a blow to directors. They took out a bet last year, whereby they stand to win more than £2m between them if the share price tops 2000p.

UBS also had Marks & Spencer, up 4p at 359p, in its sights, raising its 12-month target from 360p to 390p.

Almost 40m shares in Woolworths changed hands as it rose 1¾p to 39¾p. Some big parcels went through on the ticker, including four lines totalling 21m shares at 37.87p. There is talk of a private equity company bidding, having identified hidden value.

Takeover favourite J Sainsbury came off the boil, slipping 1½p to 280p. City speculators became excited yesterday by talk of one shareholder attempting to place about 4% of the company at around 282p.

The latest official commercial listening numbers for independent radio broadcasters failed to impress. The biggest of the lot, Capital, about to merge with rival GWR, maintained market share but its stock fell 14p to 426p.

The largest fall was seen in Chrysalis, down 12¼p at 170¾p, which is still losing listeners, according to the Rajar numbers. Broker Bridgewell Securities has downgraded Chrysalis, which includes Heart 106.2, from neutral to underweight.

Trains and buses operator FirstGroup accelerated 5p to 361p despite being downgraded by US investment bank JP Morgan from overweight to neutral because it reckons the shares are fully valued. JPM fears new rail operator franchises will come in on lower margins than present contracts.

BTG rose 6¾p to 93p in heavy turnover of 3m shares. The group is replying to the US Food and Drug Administration, which put its varicose veins treatment Varisolve on clinical hold in November 2003. The FDA reckoned Varisolve could create gas embolisms, but BTG has reformulated the treatment and carried out further research.