How construction fared in the City this week
Those former Skanska boys, Keith Clarke and Andy Sturgess, seem to have landed on their feet. Both could have been thought foolish to leave one of Europe's biggest players, but, as it turns out, they have shrewdly moved to resurgent firms.

When Clarke announced that he was to leave Skanska for Atkins in June, the megaconsultant was hovering around 280p. Now, less than a week before Clarke becomes boss, Atkins has broken the four-quid barrier – nearly eight times higher than its year-low of 52p, reached after a profit warning last September.

At close of play Friday, Atkins was sitting pretty at 401.5p, up 7.5% over the course of the week.

Sturgess, meanwhile, left Skanska last year and turned up at Galliford Try in January as managing director of its construction arm. At the time things looked bleak – the division was haemorrhaging cash. But Sturgess used his five-year stint at Skanska to turn the division back into profit. The result was a 4.8% share price rise last week to 43.25p.

At the start of the year, analysts were predicting that Galliford would have to separate the company's housebuilding and construction arms by the summer. But that deadline has been and gone, and the future is looking rosy once more.