Market report: Tuesday close

RUPERT Murdoch's satellite broadcaster

Brokers say English football's gravy train has hit the buffers, but the subsequent downturn in costs will be good for the company, which wants to charge pubs more for the privilege of allowing their customers to watch live top-flight football. US securities house Morgan Stanley is fairly upbeat about prospects for the broadcaster and has raised its recommendation from equal weight to overweight while lifting its target price more than 100p to 770p.

Analyst Sarah Simon says: 'We believe that now is the time for investors to harvest free cashflow and earnings growth, before another reinvestment cycle begins.' BSkyB rose 7 1/2p to 692 1/2p.

Share prices traded in a narrow band with Wall Street running into early profit-taking this afternoon. The FTSE 100 index closed down 1.2 at 4073.6.

BT dipped 4 1/2p to 192p after house broker Cazenove downgraded from buy to long-term buy.

AstraZeneca gave up yesterday's gains with a fall of 72p to 2493p ahead of tomorrow's review of its fat-busting drug Crestor by the US Food and Drug Administration. GlaxoSmithKline added 1p to 1224p as investment bank Lehman Brothers assessed the impact of new accounting policies on drug companies. There are also fears of cheap generic competition for its antidepressant Paxil.

MFI rose 16p to 180p as Smith Barney raised its target price from 175p to 215p with an outperform rating.

John Brown, retiring chairman of William Hill, has sold four million shares at up to 287 1/4p, but the bookie rose 8 1/2p to 297p.

Land Securities firmed 10 1/2p to 802 1/2p after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the property developer from in-line to outperform. The broker estimates the property sector could generate equity returns of about 9% compared with expectations of 7%-8% for the broader European market. But Goldman downgraded British Land, down 2 1/2p to 475 1/4p, from in-line to underperform, saying the shares looked fully valued.

Northern Rock retreated 15p to 685p as US investment bank JP Morgan cut its 12-month target from 700p to 600p. Insurance giant Prudential, up 19 1/4p at 410p, refused to comment on reports that it plans to sell its internet bank Egg, down 2p at 130p.

Black-cab maker Manganese Bronze jumped 6 1/2p to 85 1/2p. The recent sharp rise in its price has forced the company to concede it is in talks regarding 'possible transactions'. That might include the sale of its loss-making motor parts business.

AIM-listed Invox added 22 1/2p to 193p after saying it expects full-year profits to exceed the £5.5m forecast by house broker Seymour Pierce. Some say it will be nearer £6m. Invox supplies a service enabling customers of direct mail companies to ring in and collect their prizes. It is run by former financial journalist Stephen Hargrave and financier Nigel Wray. Hargrave's direct holding is now worth almost £5m.

Computer software group Staffware jumped 62 1/2p to 455p on the back of better-than-expected interim numbers.