Share indices in the week to 29 June 2001
Support services group AMEY's share freefall continued this week: shares plunged 26.5p to 313.5p. The firm, which has been troubled in recent months by concerns over its accounting policy, put out a mixed trading statement last week. Although it denied that the change in accounting policy would affect its upcoming first-half results, the group announced the loss of a contract with big client the Defence Evaluation Research Agency. The deal may have been small – £8m a year – but analysts have raised concern over an upcoming tranche of work with DERA that will be renegotiated by Amey next year.
Amey has also been hit by concerns surrounding the Tube public–private partnership saga. The firm denied that its Tubelines consortium had lost its preferred bidder status, but the continuing uncertainty hardly helps. Other contractors in the PPP race also suffered drops, with AMEC down 7p to 498p and Balfour Beatty down 19.25p to 180p.
