Sharewatch – W/E 21/03/97

It was a good week for Abbott Mead Vickers. The advertising group put on 25.5p to reach 771.5p on Thursday after it announced strong profit and revenue growth for 1996. So far AMV’s shares have put in a good performance this year, bolstered by winning Campaign‘s Agency of the Year awards in January and topping the magazine’s league with ACN MEAL billings of £306.81m.

Despite putting in a strong set of financial results on Monday, Pearson slipped throughout the week after an initial rise of 1.5p. It finished the week at 737.5p, almost 20p lower than it started on Monday. This was probably due to disappointment with the group’s announcement that it would not be selling off any of its interests in the foreseeable future.

Flextech suffered throughout the week, with a placement of around 10 million shares (roughly 8%) by Goldman Sachs sending its price down 44p on Friday to 635p. This was perhaps surprising in light of Flextech’s strong financial results on the Monday, alongside confirmation of the group’s joint digital TV venture with the BBC.

Reed International was rumoured to be a bid favourite, with Reuters named as a possible suitor. This talk improved Reed’s shares by 12.5p to 1193.5p, though Reuters fell by 12p to 635.5p. The electronic information provider was not helped by surveys which said that it was rated third amongst its competitors, behind Bloomberg and ICV.