The worry among those with a large exposure to retail stocks is that Austin Reed’s profit warning will be the first of many. Moss Bros fell 2p to 57p, French Connection dropped 50p to 1,650p, Monsoon retreated 4.5p to 142p and Next gave up 10p to 1,099p. Meanwhile, Steve Scott, an executive director at the software group, curiously sold 2 million shares.RM ticked a penny higher to 146p after the educational software specialist announced that its technology has been selected by the Department for Education for use by Spanish teachers. Fellow non-executives Chris Banks and David Thorpe also bought stock, but picked up a more modest 200,000 and 100,000 respectively. The mobile operator mmO2 topped the blue chip leaderboard, rising 3p to 75p, after Goldman Sachs upped its rating on the stock to “in line” from “underperform”.Lower down the pecking order, there was another day of brisk trade in Innovation Group, up 1.75p to 19.75p.

Geoff Squire, Innovation’s chairman, led the buying as he picked up 2 million shares at 18p. Exel received the stake in 1999 as part of the sale of its Allied Pickfords Moving Services business. At the time the holding was valued at just $34m, leaving Exel sitting on paper gain of $140m which will soon be realised, as Sirva is about to float. Analysts reckon that Exel is likely to return the money to shareholders and calculate that a special dividend of about 27p a share is a possibility.The wider market had a quiet session in the absence of trading on Wall Street, which was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday The FTSE 100 index closed 9.2 points lower at 4,361.1 The FTSE 250 fell 0.8 to 5,709.4. Yesterday it raised its earnings forecasts for 2003 and 2004 by 3 and 6 per cent respectively and pointed out that not since the merger in 2000 has Exel seen growth across the entire company.Exel has enjoyed a run of good news this week. On Tuesday it emerged that the group’s minority stake in its rival Sirva could be worth as much as $180m (£105m). The broker believes that as the global economy returns to growth, demand for Exel’s services can only rise Things are already looking up at the group’s US operations.

Exel registered a 28 per cent jump in organic earnings growth at the unit in the first half and this growth looks set to continue if UBS’s projections are anything to go by. The group’s shares certainly responded to the comments, rising 24p to 759p. Buy Exel, the good times are back at the logistics giant. That was the message from UBS to investors yesterday as the Swiss broker upgraded Exel to “buy” from “neutral” and slapped an ambitious 875p price target on the stock. If it persists it is consistent with a consumer that intends to save rather than spend.”Economists said the impact on confidence would add to the MPC’s eagerness not to shock consumers with sudden or large rate rises.A large majority of 45 economists polled by Reuters this week said the MPC would leave rates on hold next week – a sentiment reinforced by the confidence figures.Simon Rubinsohn, the chief economist at Gerrard fund managers, said: “The response of consumers in the survey highlights the dangers posed by the prospect of higher base rates.”However, Richard Iley, UK economist at ABN-Amro bank, said although pessimism was growing about the state of the economy, people’s perceptions of their finances had actually improved.. The deterioration probably relates to the rise in rates and the fear it is the start of many. Roger Wright, a director of Martin Hamblin GfK, said: “The increase in interest rates has probably affected how consumers perceive whether it is the right time to make purchases.”In contrast, households believe it is now a good time to save and are more likely to stash money away than at any time since May 2001.