That long-held impression that the City has the same feelings for construction firms as Spanish hoteliers now have for Midlands footballers is something of a cliché.
But now, dear reader, we have cast-iron proof that cute little contractors really are swans treated like ugly ducklings by we preening City, er, mallards.

Accountant Robson Rhodes has just compiled a list of the 50 most unloved companies in Britain – you may have seen it in The Sunday Times. Well, surprise, surprise, one in five of them was from the construction sector. I include in this support services group Capita, which recently snapped up consultant Symonds, and of course AWG, the unfortunate buyer of Morrison Construction, which was crowned king of the lepers at number one.

The yellow dog among the contractors was Morgan Sindall, number five overall. I used to think John Morgan's outfit was something a favourite among City slickers, but then its regional contracting arm Bluestone has had some embarrassing problems of late, and this no doubt contributed to the poor rating. The word in the wine bar is that a chunky acquisition may help matters market-wise.

Among the other chart-topping industry losers were a gaggle (is that the collective term, or is it perhaps a pringle?) of housebuilders, from Wimpey, Bellway, Barratt and Persimmon to retirement specialist McCarthy & Stone.

Jarvis’ rise cannot stay the course, surely. Cash your chips while ye may

Hunch of the week

The chaps and chapesses in the City still seems to be getting themselves into a lather over housebuilders. They expect a slowdown in the market and to be candid, dear reader, they don't care how big your margins are. In fact, some take the view that high margins correlate with unsustainable markets.

That said, the City was its usual fickle self earlier this week, backing Wimpey (+3.5p), Bellway (+1.5p), Barratt (+0.5p), Persimmon (+7.5p) and McCarthy & Stone (8.5p) while cooling off on Bovis, which eased 4.5p to 540p after posting its year end results on Monday, and Redrow, which slipped 8.5p to 369.5p.

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