HOW BRITAIN'S BIGGEST HAVE PERFORMED

The best-performing stock on FTSE-100 last week was the Energy Group, which rose 15 per cent after the largest coal mining company in the US, PacificCorp, announced an agreed bid worth about $9.7bn in cash and assumed debt. The combined company will be of a sufficient size to compete with global competitors such as Enron Corp and Southern Co. Energy Group is still trading at a substantial discount to the offer price of 692p on concern that the bid will be referred to the Monopolies Commission.

The second best-performing stock of the week was GEC, which rose 12.6 per cent on renewed speculation about a merger with British Aerospace. In addition the company announced it is cutting 535 jobs, half the workforce, at its factory which manufactures civil and defence radio equipment. This follows a decline in military orders.

The worst-performing stock last week was Rank Group, which fell 14.2 per cent after the company said tepid performances at most of its leisure and entertainment businesses restrained sales growth excluding acquisitions to 1 per cent, in the first five months of the year. Copyright: IOS & Bloomberg