SHARES STRONGLY UP/DOWN this week 12/12/05 (Master RSI)

from ft.com ...........

FTSE higher as oil stocks rally
By Philip Stafford and Peter Garnham
Last updated: December 13 2005 11:14

Hilton Group, the hotels group, was back in the spotlight in London on Tuesday.

The group is currently evaluating a bid for its Hilton International hotels division from US group Hilton Hotels Corp, announced two months ago.

Yesterday the word on dealing desks was that predators were waiting in the wings to scupper the US bid, with another hotel group after the hotel assets and venture capitalists looking at betting arm Ladbrokes for £440m.

But others thought that the reappearance of bid talk had more to do with the more widespread winding down of business ahead of Christmas. “It smacks of people making things up, frankly,” said one trader.

The FTSE 100 rose 5.7 points or 0.1 per cent, to 5,507.2 while the FTSE 250 index added 25.5 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 8,516.9.

Volume was 3.1bn shares, but much of that was swelled by Vodafone.

More than 600m shares changed hands in the mobile network operator after it secured the $4.55bn acquisition of Telsim, the Turkish operator.

But the group admitted there would be some earnings per share dilution for up to five years and it required $1bn of negative operating free cash flow short term to improve the Turkish company’s competitive position.

The shares shed 2.7 per cent to 124¾p as investors debated whether Vodafone had overpaid for the asset.

“Telsim looks very, very expensive on any available metric,” said Christian Maher of Investec Securities.

Support services group Rentokil Initial slipped 2.3 per cent to 162¾p after a major seller sold 14m shares via broker Morgan Stanley at 163½p.

Valuations in the oil services sector came under scrutiny after U.S. offshore oil and gas driller Noble Corp bought a 29 per cent stake in Norwegian rival Smedvig from the Smedvig family at a 25 per cent premium to the market price.

Among the gainers, Abbot Group rose 4.7 per cent to 258¼p while Soco International added 2.2 per cent to 802p. Expro International, which also won a series of contracts wins for work totalling $85m, gained 2.7 per cent to 535p.

Venture Production gained 5.9 per cent to 508½p as news that it was producing more than 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day was better than market perceptions.

Royal Dutch Shell B shares rose 0.6 per cent to £18.79 after it pledged to spend more money in 2006 to beef up its efforts to find more oil supplies, increasing its capital expenditure plans to $19bn from $15bn.

Rank Group edged 1.2 per cent higher to 308½p on talk that it would imminently announce the demerger of its Deluxe Film business for $750m. Ron Perelman, the owner of Revlon, the cosmetics group, is believed to be in pole position for the business.

PartyGaming, the world’s largest online poker operator, dropped 5.5 percent to 128p after Lehman Brothers cut its rating to `underweight’’ from ``overweight.’’

Ashtead, the plant equipment group, rose 8.8 per cent to 179¾p after buoyant rental demand and US earnings boosted first half profits.

FirstGroup became the largest British rail and bus operator as it won two regional rail franchises in a move which will double its rail earnings and generate more than £1bn of revenue a year.

However, the shares fell back from an intra-day high of 409¾p to close up 3.8 per cent at 375¾p. Some investors were disappointed that it would have to pay £1bn to the government over the next 10 years for the the new Greater Western Franchise franchise and £808m for the Thameslink franchise over nine years.

Johnston Press slid 4.2 per cent to 457p after a trading update showed recruitment advertising fell 25 per cent in the 5 months to November.

Analysts at Numis Securities said the best chance of an improved share price performance in a difficult market would be through a possible acquisition of all or parts of Northcliffe Newspapers, the series of regional titles Daily Mail and General Trust has put up for sale.

Insurer Lancashire Holdings made the largest initial public offering by an insurer in the London market since 2001. It raised $1 billion selling stock and other securities on Aim in a bid to take advantage of higher prices following the costly U.S. hurricane season. The shares rose 12 per cent to 319p.