Stand by for some blood-letting.Stephen Morgan, chairman of Redrow, the housebuilders, recently sold 54 million shares in the company at 158p each, realising about pounds 85m in the process. This cut Mr Morgan’s stake in the company from nearly 60 per cent to 35 per cent, and I hear he spent a large chunk of the proceeds on building a new golf course near Wrexham.This isn’t surprising, since Redrow has done well out of developing St Davids Park Hotel and Golf Club, near the company’s base in Wales. They held their first meeting last night and intend to emerge from the undergrowth, Tyrannosaurus- like, to tear limb from limb any weedy lefties who attempt to debauch the currency.
All the old names are there: two former wise men, Professor Patrick Minford of Liverpool University and Tim Congdon of Lombard Street Research, as well as Alan Walters, Thatch’s old eminence grise, now of AIG Trading Group.Peter Spencer, chairman of the herd and professor of financial economics at Birkbeck University, says: “We felt that, particularly in view of the Bank of England’s gaining independence, it was very important that there should be a debate.”Other dinosaurs include Gordon Pepper, professor at City University business school, David Smith of Williams de Broe and Peter Warburton of Flemings.The herd will operate under the protection of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), and will print minutes within a week of each quarterly meeting and publish them before the Bank of England’s quarterly assessment of the economy. Just as Steven Spielberg’s latest dinosaur flick is about to hit British cinema screens, a prehistoric group of economists has formed a club to celebrate the values of a bygone era.

A herd of Thatcherite economists has launched a “shadow” UK monetary policy committee to keep an eye on the Bank of England. SkyePharma declined 12p to 76.5p on drug development delays.Micro Focus, the computer group, collapsed 142.5p to 1,782.5p on the surprise departure of chief executive Marcel Gumucio.MFI Furniture gained 6p to 151.5p, largely on the back of the windfall spending spree. Profit forecasts are hardening with pounds 90m top of the range.Manchester United rose 15p to 685p on hopes of a Far Eastern deal; Martin Edwards, the club’s chief executive, sold more shares – 80,000 at 680p.. The market sees the abolition of the Government’s golden share in BT as a signal it will soon relax the restrictions on foreign ownership of Rolls and British Aerospace shares.

Under present regulations foreigners can only hold up to 29.5 per cent of Rolls and BAe, down 3p to 1,337p.BT, still smarting from the MCI fiasco, fell 5p to 440.5p in more heavy trading. BZW was said to have moved the shares to hold.Jefferson Smurfit, the packaging and paper group, added 6.5p to 196.5p as the losses by its 46.5 per cent owned US associate heightened the belief that a transatlantic deal was near.Shield Diagnostic jumped 50p to 570p and Drew Scientific, where there is talk of a rights issue, rose 12p to 117p.The major drug shares, after recent strength, had a torrid session with Zeneca off 120.5p to 2,144.5p and Glaxo Wellcome 56.5p to 1,343.5p SmithKline Beecham fell 42.5p to 1,204.5p. Trading was again often hectic with turnover topping 1.1 billion, the second day running the one billion level was breached.Overseas buyers were still evident, although there appeared to be some relaxation in US interest and a tendency by a few domestic players to snatch profits.The supporting FTSE 250 index was firm but the FTSE SmallCap again gave ground.British Steel was the star Footsie performer. Its share buyback, orchestrated by Cazenove, took nearly 5 per cent of the capital out of circulation at 155p a share, leaving the price up 10.25p at 159.75p.National Grid went to a 262.5p high, up 5p, on HSBC support and Reed International, up 11.5p to 619p, enjoyed positive comments from Goldman Sachs.Rolls-Royce continued to fly out of its long dive, climbing 9.5p to 232p. Pru was little changed at 614p.Schroders, 42.5p harder at 1,837.5p, was another financial in demand but Mercury Asset Management remained neglected, off 3p at 1,269.5p.Footsie ended 15.2 points lower at 4,949 In early trading it hit 4,993. Barclays gained 26p to 1,308.5p and Abbey National 12p to 891.5p.Insurances produced some strong features with General Accident up 41p to 947.5p and Royal and Sun Alliance 17p at 488.5p.

National Westminster Bank, up 19.5p to an 893.5p peak, was the centre of attention in late trading. Rumours swirled that a bid, allegedly at 1,070p a share, would be announced today by Prudential Corporation, the insurer.
Many were quick to dismiss the speculation as yet another example of a stock market ramp. Such a deal, they said, would make little, if any sense.Whether or not the Man from the Pru hovers over NatWest, the strength of the story is yet another indication of the market’s absolute conviction that takeover fun and games are about to break out in the high-flying financial sector.NatWest, with a profit warning and the far reaching problems of its investment arm to tolerate, has surprisingly put on a strong market display, even if the shares have been overshadowed by the likes of Barclays and HSBC.Paradoxically the NatWest investment side helped to keep bank shares on the boil. Two of the deals involved Eric Kenelm Ford, a partner, who has been fined pounds 8,000 and agreed to pay costs of pounds 2,000 Both the firm and Mr Ford were reprimanded.. Blue chips, after a six-day winning run which lifted Footsie more than 200 points, paused for breath, although many of the front-running financials continued to make headway. More seriously, it charged the fees for managing three of its trusts, carried out by PDFM, to the trusts themselves rather than bearing the costs itself, as the rules require.
Sovereign said there was no suggestion of fraud and investors were “generously” compensated, with an average payment of pounds 35 a head.Separately, the Securities and Futures Authority has levied a fine and costs of pounds 60,000 on brokers Teather & Greenwood after it failed to prevent potential conflicts of interest arising in relation to four placings of shares.