FTSE 100 close: Cadbury bid boosts market
M&A fever returned to the City today as a massive £10.6bn bid from US giant Kraft sent Cadbury shares soaring 38%.
The shock hostile bid came as light relief to nervy investors who had thought the revival of big takeover deals was some way off.
The FTSE 100 closed up 81.5 points to 4,933.2.
Cadbury shares surged 215p to 783p after Kraft Foods, North America's biggest food group, revealed Cadbury had rejected its initial 745p-a-share offer for the world's second-largest confectionery group.
Other players such as Hershey could be drawn into a bid battle.
The news helped lift Unilever 35p to 1,657p, Reckitt Benckiser 62p at 2,934p and SABmiller 24p to 1,452p.
Associated British Foods was also higher, but this was more due to the Twinings owner reporting another strong performance from its Primark fashion chain.
Shares climbed 4% or 33.5p to 845.5p – a 14-month high for AB Foods - after it said it expected 'some progress' in adjusted earnings for the full year.
Leisure group Whitbread climbed 18% after it reported a strong performance at its Costa Coffee chain and forecast full-year results at the top end of hopes. Whitbread shares were 185p higher at 1,211p after it said Costa's like-for-like sales rose 2.7% after an 'outstanding' performance over the summer.
The company's hotel brand Premier Inn saw like-for-like sales drop 7.7% in the 24 weeks to August 13, but this was also better than City forecasts after some stabilisation in the rate of revenues decline.
Whitbread was joined on the second tier risers' board by Sports Direct International ahead of a trading update later this week. The Sports World owner benefited from a broker upgrade by Numis Securities, which said the business was generating positive momentum in the run up to a World Cup year.
Shares were 12p up to 114p.
Lonmin was the other big gainer of the day, jumping 6% or 93p to 1,671p, after weekend press reports that Xstrata said it asked its bankers to study the viability of a new £3bn bid for the platinum producer.
HSBC was up 6.7p to 665p after a report that it had made a bid of about £1bn for Dutch financial group ING's private banking businesses.
Broadcaster ITV climbed 2.85p to 49.64p amid hopes that the Competition Commission will be in favour of changes to the mechanism that links audience figures to how much ITV can charge for its advertising slots.
The commission's provisional findings are reportedly expected this week.
Meanwhile, five-a-side football firm Goals Soccer Centres added 8% or 16p to 209p after it defied the recession to post pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 of £3.9m, 5% ahead of last year.
In small caps, shares in mining tiddler Kopane Diamond Developments soared 128% today on expectations that it will announce this week it has uncovered diamond deposits worth more than £1.5bn.
Kopane shares closed 9.25p up at 16.5p.
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