Market report: Wednesday close

SHARES in High Street electrical products retailer

He and his wife have between them sold almost 2m shares, worth an estimated £4.5m at a price of just over 229p. It reduces his total holding in the company to 3.07m shares, or less than 1%.

Several other directors have sold shares in the company this week. Deputy chairman Mark Souhami sold 400,000 and director David Hamid 70,000. Some brokers point out that Kalms, 70, is retiring as chairman in September, and that the sales have been made close to the bottom of Dixons' recent trading range.

Others say it is a strange time to sell shares, on the back of last month's upbeat presentation which, in turn, followed several months of disappointing trading. Retail analyst Nick Bubb at broker Credit Suisse First Boston expects sales at Dixons to improve in the run-up to the World Cup, and the agreed price increase for pre-paid mobile phones.

The rest of the market enjoyed modest gains despite another uncertain start for the Dow. The FTSE 100 index rose 27.2 points to 5218.2.

Shares in the London Stock Exchange were bolstered 21p to 467p on speculation it is in merger talks with Nasdaq. Merger talks with Deutsche Boerse collapsed in September 2000. A proposed merger with the London International Financial Futures Exchange was also scuppered when it was beaten to the punch by Euronext.

Stock market bears drove Vodafone to a new low of 106p before it rallied to end 3/4p dearer at 107 3/4p ahead of Thursday's new subscriber and average revenue per user numbers. Sentiment was also hurt by news that its Japanese associate J-Phone had delayed the introduction of its 3G system.

BT Group slipped 7 1/4p to 256p after outlining its plans for broadband services. BT is forecasting 500,000 residential connections by the summer of next year.

Royal Bank of Scotland rose 77p to 2002p after two brokers upgraded. US securities house Morgan Stanley has repeated its 'overweight' stance on the shares and raised its target price from 1950p to 2050p to bring it into line with the rest of the sector. Schroder Salomon Smith Barney has lifted its target from 2000p to 2200p and repeated its 'buy' advice. Morgan says RBS remains the best story in the banking sector, while SSSB says it offers superior earnings growth.

A short position was behind the leap in Barclays of 140p to 2440p. Fund manager Amvescap rose 2 1/2p to 812 1/2p, after touching 778p, despite first-quarter results coming in at the bottom end of City expectations.

BP fell 11p to 577p and Shell lost 12 1/2p to 488p following disappointing results overnight from ExxonMobil. Durex condoms maker SSL International was up 20p to 425p on vague talk of a bid from Johnson & Johnson of the US.

The buyers came in for housebuilders after positive trading news from McCarthy & Stone, up 11 1/2p at 310 1/2p. Gains were also seen in Redrow, up 12p at 284p, while Persimmon put on 18 1/4p at 448 3/4p and Berkeley was up 4p at 792 1/2p.

It was the first day of dealings on AIM in Compact Power. A total of 8.3m shares have been placed by broker Rowan Dartington at 90p, raising £7.5m. They opened at 92 1/2p before slipping to 89 1/2p.

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.

Geoff Foster of The Daily Mail on yesterday's trade
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