While stocks exposed to the housing market took a hit, those in the construction industry were boosted by strong results from Kier Group, which rose by 25p to £19.45 after it said that construction and support service work was booming.

This helped Keller, the specialist foundation engineer, to rise 41p to £10.88, to be the second-best mid-cap performer behind Ashmore, the fund manager, which had strong results on Wednesday, and rose 16p to 263p.

Severfield-Rowen, the maker of construction steel parts, climbed 28p to £23.12.

Axon Group, the SAP software consultancy, rose 22½p to 846½p as it hired Citigroup as its broker alongside Panmure Gordon.

Blinkx, an AIM-listed video search engine, rose ½p to 41½p after it struck a partnership with Utarget, an online video advertising network. It has dropped from 65p since demerging from Autonomy, up 3p at 891½p.

Monitise, which allows mobile banking and payments services, jumped 1p to 14¾p on the launch of a US joint venture with Marshall & Ilsey, aiming to replicate its UK platform.

Craneware, a supplier of software to the US healthcare market, was welcomed to its first day of trading on AIM with a 13½p jump to 141½p after a placing that was twice oversubscribed.

Thorntons, the chocolate retailer, rose 14½p to 184½p after Wednesday’s results. Seymour Pierce reiterated its “buy” advice with a 200p price target.

Avanti Screenmedia, the struggling provider of advertising TV screens, was the top small-cap performer, up 2p at 7¼p after announcing two contract wins. Global Energy Development, the Latin America-based petroleum explorer, gained 27¼p at 117½p after it said that it had received unsolicited expressions of interest.

Image Scan Holdings, a provider of 3D scanners for homeland security, was the worst performer, off 6½p at 8½p after warning of a drop in orders.

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