Share Watch: W/E 5/7/96

Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television shares last week showed mixed results. At the start of the week the ITV company’s share price rocketed to a 52-week high of 1238p on the back of rumours that Granada and possibly Carlton were about to mount a takeover bid. When this failed to materialise the price dropped back 3p for two days and then rose slightly to reach a new high of 1240: the takeover talk had obviously not disappeared completely.

Most other ITV companies faced either a static week or a slight drop in prices: Border TV remained at 275p all week whilst Carlton’s and Granada’s prices dropped, showing shareholder apprehensiveness over a bid for Yorkshire. STV, which was the subject of merger talk at the end of June, hovered around the 640 mark, whilst HTV, another possible target for Granada, had a strong showing when the Yorkshire takeover never happened: it rose from 329p on Monday to 343p on Friday.

BSkyB had shown no real movement all week but then rose from 444p on Thursday to 453p on Friday, probably due to technical confirmation of 200 extra channels launching along with good forecasts from SBC Warburg.

Television Share Prices W/E 5/7/96