How construction companies fared in the City in the week to 20 February 2001
What's happening at RMC? That's the question on analysts' lips this week after the building materials group's shares strengthened significantly. Two weeks ago they stood at 659p; earlier this week they had risen to 724.5p.
The rise has led to speculation that a bid for RMC may be near and rumour has it that one player is "reasonably advanced". Just who that may be remains uncertain but one analyst pointed out that with RMC's interests worldwide, an offshore bid was not out of the question.
Morgan SindalL has continued its rise after releasing excellent results last week. It is now up 85p to 415p. A raft of companies is also due to release results in the next few weeks. Persimmon, after taking a battering from the poor results of takeover target Beazer, has bounced back from 270p last week to 302p. Analysts put this down to investors coming around to the takeover deal following a good sales job from Persimmon's management.
