Media Shares Hit Hard In Stockmarket Nosedive

By close of trade yesterday most media stocks had suffered a bigger drop than the FTSE all share index which was down 2.6% on the previous day.

One of the worst hit was Capital Radio which fell 12.8%, a drop of 66p to 451.5p, while two other radio groups were also hard hit. GWR fell 7.8%, down 15p to 177.5p, and Scottish Radio slipped 5.9%, from 389.5p to 366.5p.

Abbott Mead Vickers was relatively unscathed with a drop of 1.8% though WPP and Cordiant were less fortunate. Martin Sorrell’s operation fell 5.6% to 261.5p while Cordiant slipped 7.7% to 120.5p.

Independent Newspapers also suffered, with a drop of 9.8% representing a 35p drop to 323p. Midland Independent Newspapers however had a better day with a fall of just 0.5%.

Among the TV companies Scottish Media was one of the worst hit, with a slide of 7.5%, from 684p to 632.5p. Carlton dropped 4% to 475p while BSkyB was down 2.4% to 405p. Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television was one of the few media stocks not to go down: it closed at 1135p, the same price as the previous day.

This morning however most markets managed a good comeback. At 12:24pm today, the FTSE was up 135.3 (2.7%) to 4890.7p.