Market report: Wednesday close

THE company that runs London's congestion charge,

Capita's share price struck 223p at one stage before the fall was cut to 5 3/4p at 233p. It followed reports that a consortium including the business support services group had failed to make the shortlist for the NHS work, part of its strategy of computerising patient records and e-prescribing.

Capita says it was merely a sub-contractor for a consortium pitching for part of the contract at local level. It was revealed only last week that Transport for London had bailed out Capita with £31m of taxpayers' money because fewer drivers than expected were paying the congestion charge.

The rest of the market beat a retreat, the FTSE 100 index closing down 50.6 points to 4074.4 following a big sell-off on Wall Street overnight. This afternoon the Dow suffered fresh falls in early trading.

British Airways dropped 8p to 163 3/4p after yesterday's profits downgrade by its own broker, Merrill Lynch, which continues to rate it a buy. Rival broker Credit Suisse First Boston has repeated its underperform recommendation but raised its 12-month target from 100p to 151p. It says structural changes in the industry have overshadowed strong cost reductions by the group.

Airports operator BAA was steady at 461p. A line of 4.5m shares was crossed at 458 1/4p. There was also a cross in 4.2m Boots shares at 651p. The stock traded 11 1/2p better at 667p.

Healthcare supplier Smith & Nephew was the best performer in the top 100, jumping 24 1/2p to 399 1/2p after pulling out of bidding for Switzerland's Centerpulse. The City sighed with relief. Analysts had feared that Smith would pay over the odds, and this weighed on its shares. Dealers say it has been trading at a 10% discount to its rivals - now it is expected to make up the lost ground.

Royal Bank of Scotland fell 24p to 1633p in the wake of yesterday's interim profits. Deutsche Bank rates the shares a buy and has raised its target to 2000p. US securities house Goldman Sachs has lifted its earnings forecast for 2003 by 2% and for next year by 3%. But US investment bank JP Morgan has downgraded the Scottish bank from overweight to neutral and downgraded its 2004 earnings forecast from 163p to 155p a share.

Aberdeen Asset Management fell 2 1/2p to 50 1/2p as it was confirmed that the Financial Services Authority has demanded undertakings from some firms embroiled in the split capital trusts scandal that they will retain enough funds to meet compensation claims. It is not known whether Aberdeen is one of them, but Exeter Investment Group, down 10p to 90p, has been banned from paying a dividend or distributing the £10m proceeds of an asset sale.

Carphone Warehouse continued to lose ground, falling 4p to 103p. Sentiment has been damaged by a £40m price war initiated by its rival Phones 4U. Yesterday it was revealed that director Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux sold 500,000 shares at 113p.

Irish miner Minmet rose 1.68p to 3.90p after reporting that gold production at its Swedish venture, where it holds a 50% stake, would be well ahead of the 34,000 ounces originally budgeted for.

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.