The company’s shares closed up 3 per cent to 254.5p, having fallen from about 300p over the past couple of weeks.. Angry shareholders in Cable & Wireless grilled the telecoms company’s directors yesterday over both pay and performance as the firm reiterated it expected trading to remain tough for another year. We mitigated them as far as it was reasonable but we don’t break contracts.”He also defended payouts in general in the wake of further criticism, saying they were necessary to ensure the company could recruit and retain the “best” people.The shares rose 11.5p to 172.5p yesterday.. Shares in Burberry fell below their issue price on their first day of dealings yesterday, robbing the luxury goods group of the stylish stock market debut it had hoped for. The price values the company at £1.1bn.Burberry said it was “reasonably satisfied” with the outcome. Rose Marie Bravo, the £1m-a-year chief executive of the group, was said to be “pleased with the response from investors”.

Her 1 per cent stake in the business is worth £11m.Burberry pushed ahead with its flotation in the teeth of a volatile market that has forced companies such as Yell, Focus Wickes and Prada, the Italian luxury goods company, to pull their flotation plans. GUS, the mail order group, retained a 77.7 per cent stake in Burberry, slightly bigger than previously anticipated.The geographic split of the shares sold in the float was, 30 per cent to continental European institutions, 20 to 25 per cent to both the UK and US with 10 per cent to Japan.Burberrys’ debut was helped by a stable day on the London market. However, 58 million of the 112 million shares in circulation were traded as institutions tried to sell some shares immediately when they briefly edged up to 235p. “It is a disappointedly high volume,” said Nick Bubb at SG Securities.

Burberry trades on about 16 time earnings, a large discount to its rival luxury goods brands such as Gucci and LVMH. However, some analysts said it should be compared with US fashion retailers such as Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, which trade on 13 and 10 times earnings respectively.Private investors can buy Burberry shares from Thursday Mr Bubb said they looked attractive. “There is more upside than downside,” he said.GUS shares fell 22.5p to 533.5p.. World stock markets endured another roller-coaster ride yesterday as investor confidence was further buffeted by conflicting signals about the health of the US economy. In the past week the London market has fallen by 391 points, or 8.5 per cent, wiping £93bn off share values.On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by more than 200 points at one stage. It closed down 117 points at 8684.5, taking its weekly fall to 7.4 per cent, the largest since last September.

The more broadly based S&P 500 ended down 0.6 per cent at 921.4, leaving it 6.8 per cent down on the week.The damage on both sides of the Atlantic was done by a much poorer set of US consumer confidence figures than the markets had been anticipating. This offset upbeat news from two big US corporations, Dell Computers and General Electric, and better-than-expected US retail sales figures.At one stage the FTSE 100 index was up by more than 100 points but it then swung to a 60-point deficit before recovering some of its lost ground in late afternoon trading.The volatility was caused by an unexpected drop in the closely watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment index to 86.5 ­ its lowest level since November 2001. Analysts had forecast a small rise in the index from 92.4 in June to 92.8. Share prices in New York and London immediately went into reverse and only partly clawed back their losses in later trading.”The Michigan survey is what’s kicked us down again, the bear market continues,” said Peter Cogliatti, at the brokers Williams de Broe. “There doesn’t seem to be any real confidence developing at all.”There was better news, however, in the shape of a 1.1 per cent increase in US retail sales in June and solid results from GE, which reported a 14 per cent increase in second-quarter earnings.