LONDON (ShareCast) - United Utilities rose into the top spot on the back of renewed speculation over a potential takeover. While one might be justified in being wary of simple speculation and rumours on this ocassion they were given credence by analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch no less. This follows talk to a similar effect, concerning "water-plays" Severn Trent and Pennon, yesterday.

Headline numbers were ahead of expectations at technology group Smiths Group, but a number of one-off items saw full-year statutory profit before tax decline. Revenue for the year ended July 31st rose 7%, or an underlying 5%, to £3,038m from £2,842m the year before, beating the £2,978m expected by the market and pushing the share price higher.

Meanwhile, it seems Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of the insurance giant Aviva, is likely to close its global Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) business. Shares in the firm dropped after the company sent clients a letter saying the business is under review because its scale prevents it from competing on the international level. The company´s shares also went ex-dividend today.

International engineering firm AMEC was slightly lower after saying it is buying a stake in a Brazilian oil and gas company as it builds its presence in the largest deepwater market in the world.


FTSE 100 - Risers
United Utilities Group (UU.) 727.00p +2.76%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,823.00p +2.76%
Rexam (REX) 433.90p +2.19%
SSE (SSE) 1,400.00p +1.89%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 755.00p +1.75%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,060.00p +1.73%
WPP (WPP) 862.00p +1.71%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,038.50p +1.47%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 586.00p +1.40%
ICAP (IAP) 342.70p +1.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Aviva (AV.) 332.80p -3.51%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,317.00p -1.91%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,088.00p -1.72%
Aggreko (AGK) 2,363.00p -1.25%
Meggitt (MGGT) 406.10p -1.14%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,160.00p -1.05%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,627.00p -0.97%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 855.00p -0.93%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,398.00p -0.92%
Standard Life (SL.) 277.20p -0.82%

NR

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