Countrywide shares hit over 5p yesterday – for the first time in weeks.

The last time they were over 5p was on May 28, while in early June they sank to around 3.2p.

They rose over 7% yesterday from 4.7p to finish at 5.05p – still less than half the price they achieved in February.

There have been noticeably heavy volumes of trading in recent days.

The shares have recently been subject to further price monitoring by the London Stock Exchange, on July 5 and again on July 8.

Purplebricks shares were also subject to price monitoring, at around noon yesterday.

The shares dipped around 2% yesterday, to finish at about 106p.