Arcadia Group, formerly part of retailer Burton Group, provided some relieffor the retail sector today after reporting a strong interim performance.
The company, up 19p to 456p, said it had made an “encouraging” start to thesecond half against a background of difficult trading conditions.
The announcement helped Next, which recently saw shares plummet on the back ofa profits warning, lift 0.5p to 499p.
However, Moss Bros was unchanged at 263p and Blacks Leisure was unmoved at360p on the back of a thin day’s trading.
The FTSE-100 Index made an uncertain start with leading shares dipping 6.7points to 5,826.4.
The banking sector was mixed with Lloyds TSB up 1p to 886p, Barclays 13p higher at £17.16, Halifax 3p firmer at 805p while NatWest was unchanged at£11.55.
Water industry watchdog OFWAT called for limits on spending by water companiesand greater efficiency improvements.
Anglian Water slimmed 12p to 903p, Hyder chilled 15p to 960p and Thames Waterfell 35p to 950p.
Drinks company Allied Domecq lifted half-year pre-tax profits by 1% to £320million and it fell 6p to 615p. Rival Diageo gained 7p to 712p.
British Aerospace finally announced it was buying a stake in Swedish defenceand aerospace company Saab.
BAe eased 3p to £19.92 as the long-awaited move signalled furtherconsolidation in the European defence industry.
Rolls-Royce engines slimmed 1p to 277p, while Alvis improved 1p to 157p andSmiths Industries remained unchanged at 858p.
Vickers, which yesterday said it was selling Rolls-Royce and Bentley luxurycars to BMW for £340 million, gained {p to 236p.
The company recovered some lost ground after a number of analysts yesterdaymarked it down as they were unconvinced that Vickers had secured the best pricefor Rolls-Royce.
Elsewhere, pharmaceuticals managed to head into positive territory withSmithKline Beecham improving 4p to 692p, Glaxo Wellcome increasing 14p to£16.55, while Zeneca took a 50p lead and rose to £25.02.
PA News 30/04/98
