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A combination of takeover fever, which has pushed the banking sector skywards, and a buoyant savings market has seen share prices take off in recent months. Woolwich added to the enthusiasm surrounding the sector yesterday by announcing a special dividend, worth an average of pounds 105 each to investors who held on to their windfall shares. The group has also put aside up to pounds 200m for a share buy-back. The shares duly rose another 6.5 per cent to 395.25p But is the market getting over-excited at Woolwich's prospects?Underlying pre-tax profits, excluding conversion costs of pounds 53m, rose 16 per cent to pounds 455.7m.

But much of that rise stems from activities outside the society's core business. More than half of the rise comes from non- interest income, such as commission paid to its independent financial advisers by other companies. Its profits were also flattered by substantial cuts in bad debt provisions, which has more to do with the recovery in the housing market than any Woolwich initiative.And it has shown the same zeal for cost cutting as some of its rivals. Mr Brown said: "The purpose is to find new ways of responding to the need for job creation and job opportunities."Outlook, page 25.

Christie's, the auction house, yesterday ended talks with a consortium led by SBC Warburg Dillon Read regarding a possible recommended offer for the company. The talks broke down on price with the investment banking group offering only around 270p-280p per share, valuing the company at just pounds 460m-470m. This was much lower than previous estimates of the bid which put the offer at around pounds 500m, or 300p per share. The consortium's offer was little higher than yesterday's closing price of 265p, up 5p on the day. But Christie's shares had no chance to react to the statement as it was issued after the market had closed yesterday afternoon."We've had some talks and the mood was constructive but the two parties have not been able to agree a proposal which the Christie's board would have been able to recommend to shareholders," said finance director Peter Blythe.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been drawing up the code proposed by the UK at its annual meeting in September. Mr Brown added that the G8 meeting (the G7 big industrial countries plus Russia) would also be considering new assessments about the impact of events in Asia on the world economy. The latest estimates by the IMF suggested it would trim 0.8 per cent off world growth this year and 0.4 per cent from growth in the advanced economies.Asia is expected to dominate the agenda on Saturday, with discussions of the IMF's plans to press ahead with further liberalisation of capital flows despite the recent crisis. The need for reform and improved regulation of banking in emerging markets will also be discussed.Other members are also expected to express their concern about the weakness of the yen and the scale of the planned boost to the Japanese economy.The G8 meeting is to be followed on Sunday by a jobs summit for North American and European finance and economics ministers. He added that there had been a significant increase in the number of FTSE 100 companies that now have joint brokers, up from 40 per cent to around 60 per cent.In the supermarket sector alone Asda has Cazenove and HSBC James Capel while Sainsbury has SBC Warburg and ABN Amro Hoare Govett.Other changes in the equities team at SBC Warburg Dillon Read include the decision to keep the entire UBS retail team led by Andy Hughes. "You don't know who is still going to be around in five years time and it is better to have some insurance against these changes."He said this was one reason behind Tesco having two brokers - one traditional UK house (NatWest) and a US firm such as Morgan Stanley.