Rightmove does no wrong move

Shares in property listings service Rightmove have jumped more than 15% to put the company in touching distance of a £500m value on the first day of trading as investors bet its opening price undervalued the business.

Some 22.7 million shares were placed at 335p by owners Countrywide Estate Agents, Connells Limited, Halifax Estate Agencies Limited and Royal & Sun Alliance E-Holdings Limited, but as of 11.30 this morning were up at 391p.

The shares represent about 18% of the company, leaving the chief owners respectively with holdings of 22.5%, 21.7%, 21.7%, and 4.9%. Conditional dealing in the shares goes unconditional by next Wednesday, 15 March, according to a company statement.

Trading in the shares comes one day after the Bank of England held the key interest rate at 4.5%, amid suggestions the housing market and services sectors are holding up well, despite another relatively poor month of consumer spending.

Other figures released in the past two weeks suggest consumer credit is being repaid at higher levels than at the same time last year, while numbers of County Court Judgements involving personal debt have been rising.

The Halifax House Price Index published earlier this week suggested prices gained 1.4% in February, but the annualised rate remained at 5.5% following slight deflation in January. Overall the lender predicts slight house price inflation of about 3% through 2006.

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