Vardy's really motoring as Sir Peter pockets £10m

SIR Peter Vardy, chief executive of Tyneside car dealer

He retains 11.9m, or 23.7%. He sold, apparently, to satisfy strong investment demand for the shares, which accelerated a further 33p to a peak of 496 1/2p despite the placing. Broker Arbuthnot is laughing too. It earned a tasty commission placing the stock with institutions.

Profits at Reg Vardy have been motoring ahead. Record results were announced last week with sales up 11% in the first two months of the year.

News of the large placing excited the rest of the sector because for a time nobody knew where the shares had come from or who they were being sold to. It could have been a bidder. Analysts expect further consolidation in the contracting sector.

Lookers, with more than 80 car dealer franchises based in the North West and Northern Ireland, advanced 8p to a five-year high of 229 1/2p, while CD Bramall rose 22 1/2p to 468p. Caffyns, rumoured to be on Inchcape's (21p up at 1013p) radar screen, edged forward 2 1/2p more to 550p.

The second-quarter reporting season needed to be good to keep the UK market's momentum going. Until yesterday there had been no real hiccups. Nokia changed all that, unfortunately.

The mobile phone giant plummeted 174p to 933p after reporting a 28% fall in profits to £439m and warning that its third-quarter would be much weaker than analysts' expectations. Handset sales were up only 2% in the quarter, below its own forecast of a rise of just under 4%.

A cautious trading statement from IBM, the world's largest computer maker, gave cause for concern and prompted heavy selling of the techno-heavy Nasdaq index. It traded 47 points lower and exerted downward pressure on the Dow Jones, which was soon 61 points off. Losses were kept in check by upbeat economic reports on US labour and housing markets.

The Footsie's late recovery from 45 points to 20.5 points down at 4056.6, reflected hopes that the US recovery is on track. The fact that US weekly jobless claims fell 29,000 to a three-month low of 412,000 and June housing starts rose 3.7% to 1.803m suggests it probably is.

Sterling eased to $1.5909, while the euro traded at 70.3p and $1.1179.

Vodafone eased 1 1/4p to 117 1/4p and mmO2 1p to 55p in sympathy with Nokia's performance.

Software group Sage lost 10p to 177p as analysts agreed it had paid far too much (£64m cash) for US software company Timberline Corp. One said: 'Completely out of character.'

Excited by bid developments at Irish drug company Galen (109p up at 742 1/2p), speculators dosed up with Shire Pharmaceuticals, 16p better at 440 1/2p.

The bullish tenor of chairman Sir Brandon Gough's agm statement helped De La Rue rise 16p to 261p. Trading in the first quarter was modestly ahead of expectations.

US broker Merrill Lynch says top market-maker Winterflood Securities, owned by investment bank Close Brothers, is having a good end to the year. The level of trading in small-cap stocks, and the level of retail activity, have been strong over the last few months. Merrill has increased its profit estimates for WINS by 26% to £21.4m for 2003 and by 15% to £20.2m for 2004.

However, the broker believes the strong performance of CB's shares has overstated the impact of better WINS earnings. It says sell CB. The close was 3p off at 683 1/2p.

AIM-listed industrial holding company Jourdan, where chairman David Abell owns 29.9%, rose 5p further to 23 1/4p on recovery hopes.

Small business space provider Bizspace improved 3/4p to 23 3/4p after finance director Paul Davis told the agm trading is in line with expectations.

Textiles group Silk Industries soared to 39p on a bid approach before closing 6p better at 32 1/2p.

ALL lights were flashing green for AIM-listed traffic signal and plant hire group Transport System as the shares raced 7p higher to 15 1/2p on hefty turnover of 427,500. Buyers hit the accelerator after the company said interim profits to September should significantly exceed market expectations. Its Forrest Highway operating unit has won several new contracts.