Sharewatch: City Responds Well To Capital

Capital Radio was seen in focus yesterday with shares rising by 2.23% to close at 401žp after the latest RAJAR audience figures revealed that the group’s flagship London station had increased its share of listening in the capital.

Traders responded positively to news that Capital 95.8 FM’s listening share in London had risen to 7.2% in the three months to September, despite audiences for Johnny Vaughan’s flagship breakfast show declining during the same period.

Chrysalis Radio was also in the spotlight with stock slipping by 2.84% to finish at 724źp after its flagship Heart 106.2 saw its share of London listening drop to 5.4%. However, the station recently recently revamped its image and hiked up its adspend by around 20% in an attempt to knock Capital off the much coveted top spot (see RAJAR Results Q3 2004: Capital And Heart Feel The Heat).

Kelvin MacKenzie’s Wireless Group was pushed 3.57% higher to close at 75˝p after the RAJARs revealed an impressive increase in listening for its national speech station talkSPORT. The station was boosted by its coverage of the recent Euro 2004 football championships which gripped the nation during the summer (see RAJAR Results Q3 2004: talkSPORT Boosted By Euro 2004).

Meanwhile, Reuters saw one of the best performances in yesterday’s media market with shares rising by 4.31% to close at 363p, despite recently revealing that revenues fell by 4.4% to £528 million during the third quarter of this year (see Reuters Revenues Down 4.4% And Expects A Further Drop In Q4).

The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were: