FTSE close: TUI Travel, C&W, Autonomy up
Close: 17.00
The FTSE 100 leapt 141.2 points – 2.7% – to 5366.4 as better economic news and some bid speculation helped buoy the market.
Among the names mentioned in some back-to-school bid rumours were, Autonomy, up 71p at £16.31, a potential target for Microsoft. It was joined by Cable & Wireless Worldwide up 5.1p at 71.9p and Inmarsat, up 31.5p to 700.5p.
Tui Travel rose 15.1p to 216.4p, on reports German parent TUI AG, Europe's biggest tour operator, is considering buying the shares it does not already own in its British unit to refocus on tourism.
15.15
The FTSE 100 adds 68.3 points to 5293.5 or 1.3%, with Wall Street's Dow Jones also 1% ahead in early trading after positive growth figures from Australia.
The pound slipped almost a cent against the dollar before clawing back the ground later on.
In London, Cable & Wireless Worldwide rises 8% or 5.6p to 72.4p on rumours of interest from US giant AT&T. Shares peaked 11% at the height of the gossip.
With copper prices buoyant, Kazakhmys added 46p to 1202p, while Xstrata was 35.5p better off at 1061.5p.
The gains left just one Footsie stock in negative territory. Power transition firm National Grid was the leading casualty, lost 3p to 546p as traders bought into racier sectors.
Elsewhere, motor dealership Vertu Motors added 2% or 0.5p to 26.75p as the firm raised profit forecasts after buoyant sales of new and used cars.
11.45
Shares in Alterian rise 6.4% to a 10-month high after the customer relations software group bought Intrepid Consultants for up to $11.5m as it looks to expand in the digital marketing sector.
'We see it as a strategically sound deal,' says analyst Gareth Evans, who upgrades his pretax profit forecast for the year to end-March 2012 by 3%.
2ergo Group stocks climb 8.7% after the mobile communications services provider delivered a reassuring trading update. Numis responded by upping its rating to 'buy' from 'hold'. Shares have halved to 62.5 pence since October 2009, and are down around 80% from their all-time high in February 2007.
Laundry firm Johnson Service Group rises 9.1% after first half profits shot up 17%, benefiting from a strong performance from its work wear rental business. 'JSG is seeing the benefits of its restructuring,' Evolution Securities says in a note. The broker says the shares are trading on a 53% discount to its larger peer, Davis Service Group.
On the FTSE Small Cap index Israeli technology group Emblaze surges more than 24%, revealing advanced negotiations for the sale of its holdings in Formula Systems.
10.00
Strong mining stocks helped the Footsie make gains today after good manufacturaing data from China helped calm worries about the global economy.
The top-flight index was 45.3 points ahead at 5,270.5 after good economic news from Asia: Chinese manufacturing growth picked up for the first time in four months, while figures also showed Australia's economy advancing at the fastest pace for three years.
Miners were buoyed by the pick-up in China's manufacturing base: Fresnillo was the best off, adding 40p to 1,130p.
'What we're seeing is edgy optimism this morning,' said Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index.
'People (are) coming back from the summer and what we're seeing this week is people taking a slightly longer term view and looking at sectors as a whole that might push us better in the coming months,' he said, pointing to the reweighting towards miners.
TUI Travel topped the blue-chip leaderboard, rising 10.3p to 211.6p, despite the stock going ex-dividend. German parent TUI AG, Europe's biggest tour operator, is considering buying the shares it does not already own in its British unit to refocus on tourism, Financial Times Deutschland reported.
Land Securities was another good gainer, up 13p to 624.5p, after JPMorgan Cazenove named the property company its top large cap pick and raised its rating on the stock to 'overweight' from 'neutral'.
Among the fallers, oil giant BP lost 2.5p to 378.1p as it announced the sale of some of its Malaysian assets to state-owned Petronas.
In the FTSE 250, fund manager Hargreaves Lansdown added 3.8p to 392.9p as investors welcomed an 18% rise in profits and a healthy dividend hike. The firm has been helped by recovering stock markets and strong levels of new business.
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