Property group Hammerson was in the takeover frame today after its chairman suggested the company would sell out to a bidder at the right price.
Recently France's Unibail and GE Real Estate of the US have both been tipped as possible predators.
At Hammerson's annual meeting today, chairman John Nelson told shareholders: "It will probably not have escaped your attention that Hammerson has recently been rumoured as a possible takeover target. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure shareholderss that the board would only consider an offer which it believed fully reflected Hammerson's outstanding investment portfolio, the value of its existing development programme and the substantial value of its pipeline, which provides us with the potential to double the size of the company."
The company climbed 44p to £16.00.
Supermarket group Wm Morrison continued to gain ground, up 2.75p to 319.75p on continuing talk of private equity interest.
Meanwhile, over at a real takeover bid, the ABN Amro situation saw more developments. A Dutch court ruled that ABN Amro must put its proposed deal to sell its US business LaSalle to Bank of America to a shareholder vote. Analysts interpreted this as a blow for Barclays' attempts to take over ABN, and said it made a successful offer from Royal Bank of Scotland more likely.
RBS fell 13p to £19.63 while Barclays added 22p to 744.5p as dealers said it was now vulnerable to a predator. "Barclays is definitely in play," said one trader.
Building materials group Hanson jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard late on, climbing 173.5p to £10.25 - a 20% gain - after Germany's HeidelbergCement said it was considering whether to make an offer for the company. Earlier Hanson shares had been supported by talk of stakebuilding by a rival.
Overall the bid stories and a host of results announcements from major companies kept the market ticking higher today. By the close the FTSE 100 index was off its best levels, but was still holding firm above 6500 at 6537.8, up 53.3.
Consumer goods giant Unilever added 60p to £16.16 after it reported first quarter sales had risen by a better than expected 5.7%.
Royal Dutch Shell, up 34p to £18.04, and British American Tobacco, 2p higher at £15.72, were also wanted in the wake of their figures.
Yesterday's rumours of a profits warning from chemicals group ICI proved unfounded, and with the company unveiling a 12% rise in first quarter profits and giving a positive outlook statement, the shares rose 7.5p to 532.5p. The stock is likely to be supported by continuing hopes of a bid, possibly from rival Akzo Nobel, with analysts suggesting a takeout price of close to 600p a share.
Elsewhere Prudential added 42p to 794p on revived talk that investors could benefit if the company split itself up. This week Pru revealed it would receive less than expected from the sale of its internet bank Egg to Citigroup, while traders were suggesting that activist fund TCI might be building up a stake.
Energy group BG was wanted ahead of its first quarter results tomorrow, adding 20.5p to 755p. Teather & Greenwood said: "Although the company is producing exceptional growth compared to the other integrated majors, we believe this is already more than priced into the shares and there is little room for disappointment."
In the mining sector Lonmin recovered from early falls to add 42p to £36.20 after yesterday's better-than-expected figures, while Antofagasta said copper production in the first quarter was 9% below the quarterly average for 2006. But a new move above $8000 a tonne for copper did help the company reverse earlier falls, and it closed 1.25p higher at 550.75p.
Xstrata added 8p to £26.68 despite its agreed bid for Canada's LionOre being unexpectedly topped by Russia's Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel miner. LionOre's London listed shares jumped 200p to £10.50p.
Meanwhile Nikanor, which owns a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, climbed 102.75p to 587.75p after yesterday's late news that it had received a bid approach.
In the retail sector books and music chain HMV was steady at 116p after it said profits would be in line with revised analysts' expectations. This follows a profit warning in March.
But a major faller was Games Workshop, which issued its second profit warning this year, scrapped its dividend and said it would shut 35 stores. Shares in the company, which makes and sells figures for role-playing games, slumped 67.5p to 260p. On April 12 non-executive director Alan Stewart sold 750,000 shares at 350p each, raising £2.6m and reducing his holding to 0.27%. The sale was "made for personal reasons", the company said at the time.
Mr Stewart is also finance director of WH Smith, down 0.25p to 457.5p.
News of the Games Workshop profit warning prompted analysts at Bridgewell to cut their recommendation from neutral to undeweight. Panmure Gordon said the abandonment of the final dividend removed the support for the shares and moved from hold to sell.
Among the airlines, British Airways slipped 7.5p to 511.5p after it revealed a 2.2% decline in April passenger traffic. Ryanair reported a 19% rise in April traffic but its load factor - a measure of how efficiently it filled seats - fell from 85% to 83%, and its shares fell 32 cents to €5.80.
In the mid-cap sector housebuilder Berkeley Group added 111p to £18.30 after UBS issued a buy note and raised its target price from £18 to £20.82.
Insurer Amlin added 10.25p to 320p after news it was set to join the Dow Jones Stoxx Select Dividend 30 index, which measures the performance of European companies which pay the highest dividends.
But leisure group Rank slipped 0.5p to 197.5p after it told shareholders at its annual meeting that like-for-like revenues had risen by 3% in the first 16 weeks of the year. Analysts at Daniel Stewart advised clients to sell.
Lower down the market cake maker Inter Link Foods was steady at 108p as Irish baker McCambridge Group more than doubled its stake from 3.29% to 8.88%.
Support services group Carter & Carter, whose chief executive Phillip Carter was killed yesterday in a helicopter crash following the Chelsea-Liverpool Champions League match, saw its shares return from suspension this morning. They fell 113p to £10.93.
"The shares are understandably likely to trade off following yesterday's tragic news," said Kaupthing in a sales note. "The group has a very able chief operation officer (ex-Xansa) and with Rodney Westhead - the non-executive chairman - assuming the chief executive role until a permanent successor has been identified, its ability to operate in existing areas should be unaffected. However Phillip Carter was the driving force behind opening up college and schools outsourcing, and it seems prudent to assign little value to this until the strategy has been reaffirmed.
"If we strip out the college/schools opportunity, the shares could in theory trade as low as 950p and our price target would moderate to £11.00. This analysis remains highly tentative until the board outlines its strategic thoughts."
Sportech, the owner of Littlewoods Pools, fell 1.25p to 14.75p after the Office of Fair Trading referred its proposed acquisition of the Vernons Pools business to the Competition Commission.
Finally Dream Direct lost 2p to 7.5p. The home shopping company warned that trading in the final quarter of the year was significantly worse than expectations, and said a deal to sell its household and leisure business had collapsed at the last minute. It is now looking for additional finance, and is in talks with a number of parties about a sale of either the company as a whole or its assets.