TAKING STOCK

Shares in Park Food, the Christmas hamper group owned by the Everton football chairman, Peter Johnson, fell to a four-year low.

Stuart Marks, who tried to buy Park earlier this year, has been removed from the board of marketing services group Handling Solutions, a Park subsidiary.

Plans for Mr Marks to buy back HSL, his old company, will not now proceed. Park ended 6p off at 62.5p.

Visual Action Holdings, a film production services group, is paying pounds 8.5m for S&S, a Chicago-based hirer of audio-visual equipment.

To fund the deal, Visual's third since floating on the stock market earlier this year, Kleinwort Benson is placing 4.1 million new shares in Visual at 210p.

The stock closed 5p up at 225.5p.