Sharewatch: Cordiant Falls On Fears Of Suspended Trading

Beleaguered advertising group Cordiant continued to fall yesterday (see Cordiant Shares Nose-Dive As Major Client Walks), down a further 30.23%, on concerns it would not be able to publish its figures in time to meet the deadline set by the UK listings authority.

Yesterday traders feared the company, which has received preliminary approaches ahead of possible takeover bids, would be suspended by the LSE. However, the group looks set to continue trading after publishing its 2002 results this morning. These show a 1.4% rise in operating profits which has cheered the market.

Elsewhere, Carlton and Granada remained in focus and analysts at SG Securities have warned that the planned merger of the two groups may not go ahead if competition concerns prevent the merger of their sales houses. The stocks were seen down 0.94% and 1.09% respectively.

The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were: