ON THE UP: Dixons Group

DIXONS said it will sell as much as 18 per cent of Freeserve, Britain's first free internet provider, to capitalise on investor enthusiasm for web companies in the biggest offering of an internet stock in Europe. The news sent the shares up 11 per cent - they have tripled since Freeserve was launched last September.

Freeserve, the UK's largest online service, with a third of the internet access market, is valued at between $800m (pounds 510m) and $3.2bn by analysts.

"The timing and incentives are in the right place," said Steve Woolf, an analyst at Paribas Capital Markets. "There is lots of investor interest in internet stocks, and the restricted amount of shares will attract a healthy level of demand."