Sharewatch

Housebuilders' shares launched a counter-attack last week after their bloody reverses in January's bear market. News of the cut in interest rates to 3.75%, the lowest since the Churchillian days of 1955, gave housebuilders renewed vigour.

WESTBURY stood as proudly as the Great Britain's greatest Briton on the day of his triumph, after its share price shot up 17.1% to 288p by close of play last week. Other impressive performers in the sector were WILSON CONNOLLY, WILSON BOWDEN, BERKELEY, BELLWAY and GALLIFORD TRY, whose share prices all experienced double-digit percentage growth.

Another strong performer was AMEC. Its announcement that a Shell joint venture in the USA had been awarded a £141m engineering, project management and construction services contract on the Russian front boosted its shares 9.9% to 186.75p.

MORGAN SINDALL was shot down on Tuesday after it released its annual results. Battle-hardened traders spotted trouble in its pre-tax profit of £15.5m, having expected £18.6m. Morgan Sindall had correctly omitted £3.1m of goodwill, but the market blasted the company down 13%. Once the mistake was noted, its shares rallied, closing about 30p up at 204p.