In London on Thursday equities markets were up as the FTSE 100 closed at 5,684.1, a gain of 0.3 percent, while the FTSE 250 added 1.1 percent to 9,192.8. Trade volumes are still lower than average, with 2.85 billion shares traded during the day. So far this week, the 100 has risen 1.5 percent and the 250 is up 1 percent.
Among homebuilders, Persimmon added 4.1 percent to £11.93 amid rumors that it is looking for a new purchase.
PartyGaming was up 3.1 percent to 123p, also on rumors that it is looking to buy. The talk is that the online gaming company wants to purchase a “bricks and mortar” gaming business.
Compass Group gained 3.6 percent to 258p, bringing its rise since last week Wednesday to 12.6 percent on the news that US investors have been buying shares in the contract caterer.
Construction company WS Atkins added 8.7 percent to 840p on full-year earnings that beat expectations, making it the biggest gainer on the 250 for the day.
The best-performing stock on the 100 was pest control group Rentokil Initial, which gained 4.5 percent to 149¾p on an upgrade from “underperform” to “outperform” and a new target share price of 171p from Morgan Stanley.
In the airlines sector, EasyJet added 2.8 percent to 392¾p on comments from Citigroup. British Airways, however, dropped 5.9 percent to 346p after it became known that its offices had been raided by the Office of Fair Trading in the course of a US/UK investigation into price-fixing.