Share indices in the week to 11 May 2001
AMEY must have thought it was in clover after it got its mitts on the lucrative public–private partnership contract to run parts of the Tube.

But the support services group's share price has gone south since the announcement two weeks ago that its Tubelines consortium was preferred bidder for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Its price has fallen 28.5p to 413.5p since the announcement.

Strange, when the contracts could be worth up to £15m a year in profit. It seems that analysts and investors are concerned by the lack of money generated by Amey, despite its growth.

In contrast to Amey's fall from grace, Amec which missed out on a slice of the pie, had a share price rise of 6% last week.

The City initially took a cautious approach to the Tube deals but interest has since grown. Shares in Amey's Tubelines colleagues Jarvis have improved, after falling soon after the announcement.

Other upward movers last week were Balfour Beatty (up 7% to 205p), Bett Brothers (up 10% to 270p) and Wolseley (up 11% to 510p). RedroW fell 5% to 235p while Prowting and Henry Boot both fell 3% to 155p and 252p respectively.