Taking Stock

With a few exceptions football club shares have failed to score with investors. One of the worst performers is Loftus Road, controlled by entertainment tycoon Chris Wright. The shares, seemingly weighed down by a steady stream of small sell orders, fell 2.5p to 29.5p, a new low. A few months after being floated at 72p in October 1996 they touched 106.5p.

The loss-making group has ambitious expansion plans but its two operations, the Queens Park Rangers football club and Wasps rugby club, have failed to perform, with QPR stuck in the middle reaches of Nationwide Division One and Wasps near the bottom of the Allied Dunbar Premiership.

Head hunter Whitehead Mann climbed 18.5p to a 217.5p peak; there is talk of a US strike.