London’s equities markets were mixed this week, with the FTSE 100 up 0.8 percent but the FTSE 250 sliding 0.4 percent over the five sessions. However, both indices were up on Friday, with the FTSE 100 gaining 0.9 percent on the day to 5,907.9 and the FTSE 250 up 0.5 percent to 9,430.1 on a volume of 3 billion shares traded. It was the first time the 100 had closed above the 5,900 mark in almost five years.
Bid talk drove much of the movement in individual companies. Cairn Energy was up 2.3 percent higher on the day to £19.15 on hopes that India’s ONGC would make a bid for Cairn’s assets there. Conversely, doubts that a private equity group would bid for BT sent the telecommunication company’s shares down 1.3 percent to 224½p.
Airports operator BAA gained 5 percent to 814p on new rumors that Ferrovial would bid for it after all, just a day after it suffered losses when it seemed that the Spanish company had decided not to make a bid, even though it had said earlier that it was interested.
Anglo American ended the day 0.3 percent higher to £19.78 despite earlier losses after Morgan Stanley cut the miner’s rating to “underweight” from “overweight”.
The banking sector saw gains on lessened concerns over inflation. Lloyds TSB was up 0.9 percent to 535½p, while Barclay’s gained 2.1 percent to 660½p.