Ask’s shares rose 4 per cent to 194p.SFI said total net sales in the three weeks to 31 December were 30.2 per cent higher at £12.7m compared with a particularly strong performance in the previous year. They were boosted by new openings and gains in central London. Like-for-like sales rose 5.3 per cent.Tony Hill, SFI’s chairman, said the buoyant sales figures reflected the group’s bal-anced portfolio, which includes food, drink and entertainment offerings.SFI said that its Latin-styled outlets, such as Salsa! and Break for the Border, had “made a solid recovery” over the Christmas period after suffering as a result of their London exposure. Its shares rose 20.5p to 236.5p.Restaurant owners have had a tough few months since 11 September, as a lack of tourists combined with fears of an impending economic downturn kept customers at home.Analysts predict that less expensive restaurants such as Ask and PizzaExpress will benefit from any slowdown as customers trade down to cheaper options.. The oil price will tumble this year as the worst economic slowdown in two decades starts to bite, a leading analyst warned yesterday. The brokerage said the reduction reflected “an even weaker-than-expected oil demand outlook due to the worst global economy in over 20 years”. Merrill lowered its 2002 forecast for Brent crude by $2 a barrel to $21.50 in November.

Merrill kept its 2003 forecast for West Texas crude stable at $24, projecting a significant tightening in the oil market as the economy recovered.”Opec unity remains rock solid,” the report said. Merrill said Opec’s quota compliance remained “comfortably above 70 per cent,” against market expectations for 55 to 60 per cent. Opec agreed last month to reduce total production by 1.5 million barrels a day, or 6.5 per cent of the cartel’s output, for six months from 1 January. This means Opec has reduced its official production by 3.5 million barrels a day in the past 12 months.Merrill said Opec’s actions would prevent the price of crude from tumbling to its historic lows of $8 a barrel reached in 1997 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.On Wednesday Brent crude oil jumped $1.10, or 5.5 per cent, to $21 a barrel on the London market. The surge was triggered by the cold weather and data from the American Petroleum Institute showing that heating oil stocks fell by 1.4 million barrels last week to 61 million barrels.Oil prices are at their highest since November on the unusually chilly weather, which drove heating oil stocks in the US down 2.3 per cent last week.

“Cold snaps on both sides of the Atlantic have kept buying strong,” a London trader said.Yesterday world oil prices steadied as Brent crude oil slipped two cents to $20.96 per barrel.. Anglogold yesterday appeared to admit defeat in the bid battle for Normandy Mining, after US rival Newmont again increased its offer for the Australian company. Success would allow Newmont to surpass AngloGold as the world’s biggest gold producer.AngloGold, which is based in South Africa and is partly owned by the London-listed Anglo American, had bid for Normandy first in September with a A$3.2bn offer. Newmont came in with a counter-offer in November and each side has sweetened its offer twice since then – the latest being Newmont’s offer yesterday.The bidding has taken the price even beyond an independent assessment of Normandy, which had put a fair value of A$1.48 to A$1.88 a share on the company, which is Australia’s leading gold producer. Normandy investors will now decide between the two.Peter Dupont, an analyst at Commerzbank, said: “I suspect it’s over unless someone else enters the fray. There’s no particular virtue in just being the biggest so if another contender bids higher now, it would have to be carefully justified.”AngloGold pointed out that investors accepting its offer would get their money before those going for Newmont and that the AngloGold bid was less conditional and came with the prospects of higher dividends going forward. Also, as both offers pay largely in shares, their respective values continue to fluctuate.Mr Godsell said: “The market must judge the offers on their merits, taking into account the relative underlying value of the companies and their potential to re-rate….