Costain shares barely reacted to the construction firm’s admission yesterday that it was planning a £60 million plus rights issue to “take advantage of commercial opportunities”, edging up only ¼p to 38¼p.

Market sources believe that there are reasons to be concerned and that the underwritten new shares, worth almost half the company’s existing market value, will have to be priced at 23p, a sizeable discount to its current price. Andy Brown, of Panmure Gordon, removed his “buy” recommendation and Kevin Cammack, at Kaupthing, said that it could signal that the company is struggling to raise capital for Alcaidesa, its Spanish property development joint venture, which at the end of July won permission to build a marina near Gibraltar.

Aga Foodservice rose 8p to 427½p after Edmund Truell’s Pension Corporation, which buys pension schemes from companies, increased its stake from 8.15 per cent to 10.24 per cent.

Aga said last week that it was “considering options” for the £792 million pension fund after talks with Mr Truell. Enodis rose 4¾p to 192¼p after rumours that it would buy the £300 million foodservice arm of Aga, which is up for sale. It raised $250 million in new debt on Tuesday.

Tui Travel, formed from the merger of First Choice with Tui, of Germany, and expected to join the FTSE 100 at some stage, closed up 2p at 274½p after John Fredriksen, the Cyprus-based shipping billionaire, raised his stake to 5.12 per cent from 3.07 per cent.

ProStrakan, the pharmaceutical group, stood out among tiddlers with a 7p gain to 62p after it said that it was poised to launch three flagship products in America. Renesola, the Chinese maker of solar wafers, which tumbled on production problems last month, recovered 29¼p to 271p after it said that it had made progress with new furnaces. Burst Media, the online advertising agency, fell 3½p to 13½p after a profit warning.

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