BEST AND WORST PERFORMING SECTORS

The best performing sector in the FT-SE 100 was telecommunications, which rose 6.1 per cent on the week. This reflected the gains in Cable & Wireless but BT also gained on the week on hopes that the Government will allow it to use its telecommunications network to provide TV broadcast facilities.

The second best-performing sector was oil exploration, which rose 5.4 per cent. This largely reflected the gains in Lasmo, but Premier Oil rose to a six-year high of 44p ahead of a meeting later this month where the company could reveal good drilling results in Indonesia and Pakistan.

THE WORST performing stock was paper and packaging, which fell 6.4 per cent. The sector was pulled down by the 21 per cent drop in De La Rue shares, which fell to a six-and- a-half year low after the security printing company said second-half profits had declined by 44 per cent as competition eroded profit margins at its banknote business.