The London markets were higher on Thursday, despite the fact that the FTSE 100 dropped almost 45 points late in the session after early trade on Wall Street was weak. The 100 added 0.1 percent to 6,210.3, while the FTSE 250 gained 0.2 percent to 11,122.9.
Pubs operator Enterprise Inns was the best performer on the 100 for the session. It added 4.3 percent to 658p when Deutsche Bank reconfirmed its “buy” recommendation and 790p target share price. Additionally, Deutsche Bank said that Enterprise would return 50 percent more to shareholders in 2007 than it did in 2006.
InterContinental Hotels Group also did very well with more than 16 million shares changing hands on rumors that Starwood Capital could be interested in a bid. InterContinental gained 3 percent to £12.55.
Wolseley was 1.8 percent higher to £13.23 when Merrill Lynch repeated its “buy” recommendation for the plumbing and building materials group.
Speciality chemicals company ICI dropped 0.2 percent to 478p in spite of rumored activity in the sector. Rumors had it that a consortium of private equity groups are looking to bid on Dow Chemical for the purpose of breaking the company up.