Market report: Wednesday close

BT GROUP was ringing all the right numbers in the City today with the shares threatening to break through their 200p resistance level as they rose 5 1/2p to 194p.

Fans of the stock say BT has traded in a 20p band this year and is almost certain to stage a breakout as increasing numbers of institutional investors pile back in.

The price remains way below the record 1053 1/2p at the height of the technology boom four years ago. The group's fortunes subsequently nosedived as debt soared and competition from mobile phone operators intensified. BT even had to hive off its mobile phones arm Cellnet, which now trades as mmO2.

BT's fans say the company has repositioned itself in the marketplace and its emphasis on broadband is paying dividends.

Telecoms experts claim free phone calls on the internet is a positive move for the likes of BT and will instead cause problems for mobiles operators. Today's flurry of activity was flavoured by speculation the group may have had talks about a joint venture with one of the big computer companies.

City speculators have extended this week's run in Egg, up 1/4p at 162 1/4p, in the hope a buyer has finally emerged. Egg's parent company, Prudential, put its near-80% stake up for sale in January. Likely suitors have fallen by the wayside, unable to agree a price.

Egg's disastrous move into France was also said to have been a stumbling block. But word is US creditcards giant MBNA is set to table an offer worth 175p a share, which would value Egg at £1.4bn.

Elsewhere in the sector, Standard Chartered put on 1 1/2p to 897p. Broker UBS has repeated its neutral rating on the international banking group and has raised its 12-month target to 1000p from 975p.

Share prices generally spiked higher in thin trading, with the FTSE 100 index rising 33.50 to 4491.10. In New York, by early afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 15.24 at 10,365.19 and the Nasdaq composite index was 3.02 lower at 1,992.58.

Back in London, Boots rose 13p to 662p. Director Paul Bateman has picked up 5,960 shares, stretching his holding to 177,393. MFI rallied from yesterday's downgrading by broker Credit Suisse First Boston with a rise of 8 3/4p to 161p in heavy turnover of more than 17m shares.

US investment giant Brandes has once again trimmed its stake in Marks & Spencer, 6 1/2p better at 363 1/2p. The group has sold 3,278 American depositary receipts and 125,400 ordinary shares to cut its holding in the retailer to 12.41%. Brandes raised $18m (£10m) at the beginning of the month when it offloaded almost 500,000 ADRs, one of which is the equivalent of six ordinary shares.

Invensys topped the FTSE 250 risers, up 1p to 16 1/2p, as investors warmed to the indebted group's plans to buy back nearly $120m (£66.6m) of outstanding bonds. Phytopharm rose 4 1/2p to 148 1/2p on the launch of Zanthofen, a treatment for arthritis in dogs.

Aim-listed computer software facilities group Raft International rose 3/4p to 11 1/4p after it named Charles Stanley as house broker.

A day after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King's warning to homebuyers, estate agent Countrywide, unchanged at 280p, says the value of its commissions for properties under offer was up 15% to a record high during the first half of 2004. Fidelity has upped its stake in Countrywide to 15% after buying 2.9m shares.