Share indices in the week to 10 August 2001
As if to coincide with the start of the football season, the talk in the City this week was of a premier division of contractors. The idea, put forward by Credit Lyonnais Securities analyst Alastair Stewart, is that a select few contractors – AMEC, CARILLION and BALFOUR BEATTY – will be rerated by the Stock Exchange in line with support services firms. Stewart added MOWLEM and ALFRED McAlpine to the premiership this week, on the grounds that they are following the services trend originally taken up by contractors such as AMEY and INTERSERVE.
The City seems particularly chipper with McAlpine, up 20.5p to 431.5p following the £461m sale of its housing division to Wimpey. And with a war chest of £200m to spend, it is no surprise that expectations for McAlpine are high.
There has also been a change of fortune for Mowlem. Once derided by the City for being slow to change – one analyst famously described its pace of development as "glacial" – the contractor seems to be quietly garnering more praise from stock watchers, climbing 11p to 193p earlier this week.
There was also an improvement in MORGAN SINDALL stocks, up 17p to 480p after impressive interim results (see above).
