Rumours of Watts departure lifts Shell

RUMOURS were rife that Sir Philip Watts might make a sudden departure. The chairman of

Some £3bn was wiped off its share price, but Sir Philip was nowhere to be seen.

Shell firmed 4 1/4p to 365 1/2p yesterday on hefty turnover of 73m as dealers heard that major shareholder Legal & General was pressing for a change. Some suggested his departure could even be confirmed when the group reports annual results on 6 February. If not then, the word is that April's AGM will certainly be his last.

Sir Philip took a lot of flak after shelling out £3.5bn for Enterprise Oil in April 2002. His chairmanship is due to run until mid-2005, but some investors and fund managers - disappointed by poor production and reserves growth - now believe he should not go the distance.

Other oils gushed as the crude price touched a 10-month high. Freezing weather conditions are continuing in north-eastern US, the world's largest market for heating oil. Opec president Purnomo Yusgiantoro has also suggested that the cartel may still cut output quotas at next month's meeting. British Petroleum rose 10p to 448 1/4p and BG 5 3/4p to 2843 /4p.

Another healthy two-way business lifted overall turnover to 4.2bn. The Footsie remained in fine fettle at 4511.2, up 11.9 points, while Wall Street retrieved a 37-point deficit to trade 15 higher. Nasdaq, however, retreated 20 points following weaker-than-expected sales from Motorola's mobile handset division.

A disappointing quarterly earnings report from Lucent Technologies, the largest US telephone equipment maker, also put tech stocks under pressure.

Sterling extended its gains against the dollar and closed at $1.8308, after $1.8357. The Bank of England's minutes for the December Monetary Policy Committee meeting showed there was an eight to one vote in favour of keeping UK interest rates on hold at 3.75%. The euro closed at 69p and $1.2642.

Buying on yield considerations helped Scottish & Southern Energy to sparkle at 662 1/2p, up 17p.

Still reflecting bullish noises from Deutsche Bank - coupled with the general perception that recent heavy selling on worries about sales of its cholesterol treatment Crestor were overdone - left drugs giant Astra-Zeneca 46p better at 2610p.

Recovery hopes lifted package tour operator MyTravel 1/2p more to 14 1/4p.

Luton airport owner and operator TBI nosedived 5 3/4p to 61 3/4p on hearing that hopes of a full-scale bid from Germany's airport group Hochtief have been grounded.

Hochtief said it was no longer interested in making an offer. TBI said it had not spoken a word to the company since its approach six weeks ago. Very strange!

Aim-quoted Aerobox jumped 6 1/2p to 34 3/4p after Aer Lingus placed an order for 100 of its air freight containers with a future option to buy a further 900 during 2004.

Virgin Atlantic has also agreed to replace its entire stock of LD3-sized cargo and baggage containers at their Gatwick base. Other deals are in the hangar.

Marketing support services group 4imprint soared 31p to 133 1/2p after forecasting higher full-year pre-tax profits for the current year. Broker Numis advised clients to buy and raised its target price from 120p to 175p.

Mediwatch jumped 2p to 7 7/8p after its Portascan portable bladder scanner received US marketing approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Biofocus advanced 11p to 143 1/2p following a bullish trading statement. Full-year turnover and profits will meet market expectations.

Business website Hemscott gained 7p to 54 1/2p on talk of new contracts.

Online auctioneer QXL Ricardo touched 820p before closing a further 111p higher in a thin market at 620p. The two-day leap of 462p followed narrowing third-quarter losses and news that it is now operating profitably.

Amid talk of an imminent bearish circular, Granada lost 4 1/2p to 135p. It will soon be renamed ITV Group following its merger with Carlton.

A REVITALISED Joe Public has been steaming into many of the old penny dreadfuls during the market's recent strong rally. But dealers say Xecutive Research is one quoted 'interesting' cash shell that has so far been overlooked. There were a few buyers sniffing around yesterday lifting the price 0.03p to 0.18p, which compares with the peak of 1 1/2p.