Market report: Tuesday close

SHARES of

At the last count, Bioglan had debts of £115m and earlier this month was forced to pull out of the proposed $765m (£534m) acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb's skin care business. Chairman and chief executive Terry Sadler, with 35% of the shares, was forced to stand down. Royal Bank of Scotland will decide by Wednesday whether to call in loans totalling £105m and let Bioglan go to the wall or offer further support.

The share price has slumped from a peak of 610p since February, and earlier this year the company replaced its broker ABN Amro with US securities house Goldman Sachs. Goldman subsequently placed 3% of the shares belonging to disgruntled holders at 99p in the market. I hear that during the past few days it has been selling Bioglan down to a low of 12p, undermining speculation that a rescue deal may soon be concluded.

Rival SkyePharma, down 3/4p at 54p, may want to cherry-pick parts of the business if Bioglan cannot reach agreement with its bankers, but it is unlikely to mount a rescue bid.

The FTSE 100 index was off 82.30 at 5003.6 at the end of play.

A 23% drop in its asset value left venture capitalist 3i off 60p at 730p. The group has announced plans to close seven offices and shed 185 jobs. News of 1,250 job losses left engineer GKN down 10p at 270p while leisure firm Whitbread, up 10 1/2p at 523p, is planning to get rid of 300 jobs.

Colt Telecom lost 15p to 122p as speculation subsided about a possible bid from rival Cable & Wireless, down 4p at 312p. Some brokers say Colt is continuing to use up too much cash, even for the likes of C&W, which had about £7bn to spare at the last count. Broker Merrill Lynch has trimmed its 2001 revenue forecast. Vodafone fell 5 1/4p to 158p as Commerzbank downgraded from 'hold' to 'reduce' after taking a closer look at the average spend of its phone users.

Tesco firmed 2 1/4p to 243 1/4p with Goldman Sachs still a big fan, keeping the shares on its 'recommended list' following a visit to the company's operations in Taiwan. Goldman said Tesco has got off to a strong start there and reckons its international expansion programme remains the cornerstone of its buy rating.

Celsis International faded 3/4p to 17p. The medical equipment supplier had been hoping to benefit from a $26m contract to supply the US government with a system to detect spores such as anthrax. But it looks as though the contract has gone to its American rival Surebeam.

Morgan Crucible continued to reel from Monday's profits warning with the shares losing a further 6p to 163 1/2p as broker UBS Warburg reduced its target price to 150p. It was the first day of trading on AIM for Numerica, the shares opening at 105 1/2p before closing at 109p.

Prices and indices in this report are from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed elsewhere on the site.

The Daily Mail's Cliff Feltham on yesterday's trade

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