"I call upon the Bank to continue conducting appropriate and flexible operations."Later, Yoshitaka Murata, the vice finance minister, revealed that representatives from the finance and economic planning ministries at the BoJ meeting had exercised their right to ask the board to delay the decision.Mr Hayami told reporters he wished he had raised interest rates earlier but said he had delayed because of the G7 meeting of heads of state, the general election and the bankruptcy of Sogo, a leading department store.The financial markets reacted calmly to the rate decision, which had been expected either yesterday or next month.Richard Jerram, an economist with ING Barings in Tokyo, said: "If anything this is positive for the equity market because it does show that the independence of the central bank is intact." But the verdict of economists was mixed as some were concerned the hike risked jeopardising Japan's fragile recovery."The financial system is still quite delicate and it needs some tender loving care," said Mike Naldrett, of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Asia.The head of Keidanren, thebusiness lobby, criticised the move. Takashi Imai said it was "extremely difficult to understand..

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Their responsibility could be questioned". But Mr Hayami stressed monetary policy was still relatively loose - an argument accepted yesterday by the economic planning ministry.Later it emerged that the International Monetary Fund had also urged the BoJ not to hike rates. In a report completed last week but issued yesterday, it said it feared such a move could push the country back into recession..

Limelight Group, the home improvements company that includes Moben kitchens and Dolphin bathrooms, ended its troubled four-year spell on the stock market yesterday with a management buyout valuing the company at £57m. Limelight Group, the home improvements company that includes Moben kitchens and Dolphin bathrooms, ended its troubled four-year spell on the stock market yesterday with a management buyout valuing the company at £57m. The deal is worth 57p per share, an 83.9 per cent premium to the closing price in February when the company said it had received an approach. However, the price is a fraction of the 175p at which Limelight came to the market in 1996.The management team is led by Andrew Stanway, the group's chief executive, together with Ashley Lewis, finance director and Andrew Thomas, a non-executive director. It is being backed by Phildrew Funds.Limelight has 400 stores across the UK and, in addition to Moben and Dolphin, operates the Portland conservatories and Sharps bedrooms brands.The group recorded a fall in pre-tax profits from £4.7m to £3.4m last year on sales up 5 per cent at £91m Its shares closed up 5p at 55.5p.. Nomura was last night contesting the outcome of the four-month takeover battle for Hyder, the Welsh utility, after apparently coming out on the losing side in an unprecedented finale involving the submission of sealed bids.

Nomura was last night contesting the outcome of the four-month takeover battle for Hyder, the Welsh utility, after apparently coming out on the losing side in an unprecedented finale involving the submission of sealed bids. It is understood that rival Western Power Distribution, a US energy joint venture, offered more money under a procedure invoked by the Takeover Panel. Both sides had until 1pm yesterday to submit their final offers.WPD appeared to have emerged the victor, with a bid of 365p a share, valuing Hyder at £565m. It was just 5p a share more than Nomura's last offer, made on Wednesday, of 360p a share.However, the result was delayed because of frantic last-minute appeals from Nomura, the Japanese bank. Nomura, had already declared the sealed bids procedure "wholly inappropriate" on Thursday.Under the sealed bids rules, the two sides were each required to submit offers which involved making a specific bid and also stating a maximum threshold the party was willing to pay. Under the Takeover Panel specification, the winner would be the side with the highest maximum, but the price it would actually pay would be the threshold submitted by the losing side plus 5p.Nomura yesterday simply repeated its 360p-a-share bid and offered no higher maximum, so WPD appeared to clinch it at 360p plus 5p. It is understood that WPD offered 360p, with a threshold of 375p or 380p.The market overestimated the price Hyder would go for, with its share price closing yesterday 4p up at 385p, well ahead of the winning bid. Some investors were still buying at these levels in the expectation of a substantially higher final offer emerging.Although the Panel has proposed using sealed bids to settle a contested takeover twice before - in the takeover battles for Energy Group two years ago and Eagle Star in the early 1980s - it was not used in either case as one side dropped out before the close.The contest for electricity and water group Hyder is the only takeover battle that has seen two cash bidders left in the race on the last day allowed under takeover rules, which fell yesterday.The sealed bids mechanism was meant to provide an orderly outcome to the takeover, with the result due at 4pm yesterday.

However, with no winner declared by 6.30pm, and the Hyder share price closing well above the winning bid, analysts said the procedure was in danger of being seen as farcical.Even at 360p or 365p, analysts have been surprised by the price the two bidders were prepared to pay for Hyder which is weighed down by £1.9bn of debt. The Hyder board, led by chief executive Graham Hawker, recommended Nomura's original offer, made in April, at 260p.Nigel Hawkins, an analyst at Williams de Broe, said: "We will see in the fullness of time whether WPD has overpaid. Americans have come over and overpaid for UK utilities before."Hyder, floated at 240p in 1989, saw its share price hit a high of 1,048.5p in 1998, then fall away sharply. Before takeover speculation emerged in March this year, the shares were trading under 190p.. Two of Britain's top pools companies yesterday announced radical plans to reinvent themselves as they struggle to compete with the National Lottery. Two of Britain's top pools companies yesterday announced radical plans to reinvent themselves as they struggle to compete with the National Lottery. Zetters, the country's third-biggest pools firm after Littlewoods Leisure and Vernon's, said it was close to clinching a "substantial" acquisition which would constitute a reverse takeover. Shares in the company were suspended at 186p ahead of the announcement.