Sharewatch: Independent Down Despite Revenue Hopes

Publishers of the Independent newspaper, Independent News and Media, saw a dramatic drop in share price yesterday losing 4.59% to close at 166ź, despite displaying a strong performance on last weeks market. The company has predicted a good 2005 with overall circulation revenues going up by 10% (see Independent Profits Rising Despite Times Competition).

Sir Martin Sorrell’s global advertising group WPP climbed by 0.99% yesterday to close at 561˝p. Last Friday the company won a important court case against media communication and research group Aegis’ subsidiary, Carat. The French Commercial Court of Nanteerre ruled against Carat, finding that the company had made allegations of illegal client poaching to obtain sensitive information about KR Media’s finances and commercial strategy.

Global Information service Reuters also saw a slight increase in its share price, gaining 0.93% to close at 380źp. Many traders believe that the company may issue a weak trading statement soon, however, this is understood to be tempting several hedge funds back into the stock.

The FTSE 100 dropped 13.4 points to close at 4,840.7 while the FTSE 250 also lost ground, decreasing by 6.8 points to close at 6,957.2.

The closing prices of media company shares on Monday were: