PartyGaming was in high demand in London on Friday as investors adjusted their portfolios on the last trading day of the quarter.
The online gaming group has seen its shares drop nearly 45 per cent in the last month on fears about the slowing growth in its markets but there was some respite on Friday.
Heavy buying of nearly 155m shares, nearly three times the usual daily average, saw the shares rose 4.3 per cent to 91¾p.
Traders attributed the gains to US hedge funds buying shares to cover bearish positions, a factor also behind rises elsewhere in the gaming sector. Empire Online gained 2 per cent rise to 179p while FireOne added 4.6 per cent to 395p.
Dealers said many institutions were more concerned with identifying their investment targets over the next three months rather than trade. But the need to close and tidy up positions accounted for the flat finish to trading when the FTSE 100 recouped 15 points in the closing auction to finish virtually flat, down 0.5 points, at 5,477.7.
The FTSE 250 index gained 26 points, 0.3 per cent, at 7,951.1. Volume was a firm 3bn shares.
The FTSE 100’s late flurry meant it had chalked up a 1.2 per cent gain over the week and an impressive 7.1 per cent gain in the quarter and 13.8 per cent in the year to date. The FTSE 250 gained 1.1 per cent over the week, 7.9 per cent in the quarter and 14.6 per cent in the year to date.
SABMiller, maker of the Miller and Pilsner Urquell brands, rose 1 per cent to £10.99 after Deutsche Bank raised its price target from £10.50 to £12.50. Analyst Nick Bevan said the $7.8bn purchase earlier this year of Colombian brewer Bavaria was the key.
“The Bavaria deal broadens SABMiller’s emerging market portfolio and reduces the risk profile. The buoyant economic conditions being enjoyed within its key markets should ensure double-digit profit growth in 2006-07,” he said.
Traders also said a hedge fund had been caught on the wrong side of SABMiller and was buying shares to cover its position.
Marks and Spencer weakened 0.6 per cent to 374¾p despite Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs becoming the latest brokers to back the retailer, encouraged by hopes for its new clothing range.
Bid speculation surrounded Aegis Group, up 0.4 per cent to 140p, amid talk that Publicis of France was poised to make an offer for the the media buying group.
At the same time, it emerged that Vincent Bollore, the corporate raider and chairman of French marketing group Havas, had upped his stake in Aegis to 8.9 per cent.
Morgan Crucible rose 6.6 per cent to 229½p after it agreed to sell its magnetics division to private equity firm One Equity Partners for a more than expected £225m.
Insurer Admiral slipped 1 per cent to 425p after top executives, including chairman Alastair Lyons, took advantage of the end of the lock-in period from last year’s IPO, to sell shares through Merrill Lynch.
Virgin Mobile, the mobile phone reseller, rose 6 per cent to an all-time high of 295p. On Thursday house broker Investec raised its revenue forecasts on Thursday, forecasting increased momentum in the average revenue it gets from existing customers.
Asia Energy, which is seeking to extract coal from Banglasdesh, rebounded 0.4 per cent to 695p. The shares dipped on Thursday on news that major backer Cambrian Mining had sold 4.3m shares.
However, Cambrian still retains 4.5m shares, or 11.3 per cent of Asia Energy’s capital, and has given an undertaking not to sell any further shares for another eight months.
Oxford Biomedica rose 4 per cent to 45¾p after one institution was rumoured to have bought 650,000 shares at a penny above market levels.
Regal Petroleum jumped 15.3 per cent to 101½p as former chairman Frank Timis took advantage of the oil exploration group’s falls this week to buy 1m shares to take his stake to around 7.3 per cent, around 9.3m shares.
DAT Group, the mobile phone solutions company, lost 8.9 per cent to 56½p amid talk its upcoming fundraising could be a rights issue priced as low as 30p.
