"I yam an antichrist! I yam an anarchist!" I'm not really either, of course.
But I have often been rather sympathetic to the rebellious nature of the Sex Pistols' words, particularly if I've had a tumultuous day in the Square Mile.

I'm sure many others in this bizarre little community often feel the same. Yet where was the outrage, the blood-stirring revolt last week? Clearly we chaps and chapettes remain a conservative bunch at heart, because construction services group Keller fell a mere 4.1% last week, closing on Friday at 221.5p.

But why are you picking on the fellas at Keller? I hear you ask.

Well, last week the group warned us that its full-year pre-tax profit would be about 10% down on market expectations of about 拢31m. It also made about 80 people redundant earlier this year.

Thus, one might have expected investors to have revolted at the realities of the not-so-invisible hand of capitalism. Instead, it seems that Keller was buffered from potentially rebellious share followers by its impressive restructuring plan, which involves focusing on its core ground engineering businesses.

Housebuilder Swan Hill becomes Raven Mount later this month. The new team looks impressive 鈥�

Hunch of the week

"I wanna destroy passer-by/Cos I wanna BEEEEEEE anarchy!" Some of the lyrics of Anarchy in the UK, I must admit, are a little strong for my delicate taste. I have never wanted to destroy a passer-by, nor have I ever aspired to become the embodiment of a political philosophy.

Indeed, anarchy in action was not a pretty thing for Atkins last year. The megaconsultant saw 93% wiped off its share price last year when it issued a profit warning and redundancy schedule. The anarchy was caused by a poorly introduced IT system, which caused a few little problems, such as the inability to process invoices.

Since those bloody days when shares in the support services group fell to half-a-quid a pop, Atkins has slowly rebuilt its reputation. Last week its chairman Mike Jeffries pledged to wipe out its 拢26m of net debt within four months. It also announced an interim pre-tax profit for the six months to 30 September of 拢17.8m, after being heavily in the red at the same time last year. The market responded favourably, lifting its shares 3.4% to 454p.

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