Sharewatch

After all the excitement of the battle of the Pidgleys last week, it is a bit of an anticlimax to see that it barely affected Berkeley Group's share price – it was up just 0.5% last week to 657p. At the height of the takeover talks the price did hit 687.5p, but this fell back once Pidgley Jr's offer had been swatted away by his dad.

But as one leading housebuilder pointed out, for all the gossip and scandal unveiled by the debacle, it did prove that the sector is treated poorly by the City: "It's certainly put the sector in the headlines and underlined the fact that the housebuilders are underrated. It's not often that our sector gets a full page in the tabloid press."

Housebuilders fed heartily from the scraps of goodwill that were generated towards the sector as the cub tried to take over the lion's pride. Westbury was up 6.9% to 311p, Wilson Connolly gained 3.9% to 160.5p and Wilson Bowden rose 2.4% to 760p.