Market report: Weds close

THERE was a brief celebration today to mark

The price briefly touched 139p on turnover of only 13,900 shares before settling to trade 2 1/2p better at 130p. There is, however, still no sign of the much talked-about bid for the Premier League side.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson's fellow racehorse-owning mates John Magnier and JP McManus have spent more than £30 million between them on building a stake of almost 9%, and there is talk the Irishmen will go on adding to that.

Rupert Murdoch's satellite broadcaster BSkyB, down 22 1/2p at 781 1/2p, continues to hold almost 10% of the shares following its blocked bid attempt a few years ago. Man United shares were then trading at around 412p but earlier this month slumped to a new low of 118p - where the club looks vulnerable to takeover. It seems unlikely the fabulously wealthy pair will launch a bid themselves, but they may be waiting for someone else to make a move. Having paid about 150p a share for their original holding, they are sitting on a paper loss.

Meanwhile AIM-listed Birmingham City rose 3p to 27p after majority shareholder Sport Newspaper owner David Sullivan put his entire 78% stake in the Nationwide First Division side up for sale.

A computer failure first thing left traders struggling to update prices. But a spurious rumour that Osama bin Laden had been captured provided a springboard for the FTSE 100 index to reverse a 58-points deficit. It ended 25.7 down at 5167.60 after a hesitant start to trading on Wall Street this afternoon.

There are institutional investors who want to put money in the market but are prevented from doing so by stock shortages-Dealers say there is little evidence of any selling pressure.

Deutsche Bank is in upbeat mood. It forecasts another cut in bank base rates next month, claiming that speeches by members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee may have been designed to alert the markets to the prospect.

GW Pharmaceuticals stood out with a jump of 13p to 108p, hoping to benefit from Home Secretary David Blunkett's decision to relax the laws on cannabis. The group is currently developing a portfolio of prescription medicines derived from the drug. Dixons rose 10 1/2p to 201 1/2p supported by a series of positive meetings with brokers. Like-for-like sales levels are being maintained.

Vodafone slipped 4 1/4p to 164 1/2p ahead of its third-quarter trading update tomorrow. Merrill Lynch has downgraded from buy to accumulate and has slashed its 2002 price target from 245p to 195p. By contrast, rival broker ABN Amro has moved from hold to add on the shares, claiming they are undervalued. Lehman Brothers says the shares are a strong buy.

Diageo retreated 3p to 680p in response to the move by the US Federal Trade Commission to block its proposed acquisition along with Pernod Ricard of Seagram's wine and spirits business from Vivendi Universal.

But the FTC is allowing Diageo to proceed with the sale of its Pillsbury food business to General Mills. Broker Merrill Lynch responded by upgrading Diageo shares from accumulate to buy.

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 trading
World markets, updated every 15 minutes
Every share, updated every 15 minutes
AIM, updated every 15 minutes
techMARK, updated every 15 minutes
Today's gainers and fallers