The equities markets in London were up in mid-day trading on Tuesday, led by advances in the energy sector brought on by bidding wars on the continent.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.3 percent to 5,882.3 and the FTSE 250 advanced by the same percentage to 9.481.0.

While Eon and Gas Natural fought it out to see which firm would be able to acquire Endsea, buying among utilities listed on the London exchanges accelerated. International Power was up 3.8 percent to 285p and Centrica gained 3.7 percent to 307p, while Scottish & Southern Energy reached a record share price of £11.76, up 3.1 percent. British Energy gained 1.8 percent to 630¾p, helped by an upgrade from “sell” to “hold” by Citigroup, which also boosted British Energy’s target price from 360p to 530p.

Elsewhere, Numis securities upgraded online gaming company Partygaming from “hold” to “add”, helping Partygaming to a gain of 3.2 percent to 122½p. The upgrade came after a legal dispute with Empire Online had been settled. Empire Online gained 0.8 percent to 119p.

Credit Suisse, however, downgraded cruise ship operator Carnival from “outperform” to “neutral” after bookings were lower than expected even after promotions had been increased. Carnival dropped 2.6 percent to £31.86.

Equity markets were down on Wednesday in London. The FTSE 100 lost 0.9 percent to 5,369.7, while the FTSE 250 was down 1 percent to 7,849.1.

Volume on the day, was 3.3 billion shares traded.

At least one analysts blamed the poor performance, the worst since the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, on weakness in US equities markets due to high oil prices and another interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

The banking sector was mixed, with Royal Bank of Scotland down 1.3 percent to £15.76 on rumors that it might be thinking of intruding into the proposed merger between Germany’s HVB and Italy’s UniCredito.

Elsewhere in the sector, however, Paragon gained 2.2 percent to 485½p and Northern Rock was up 0.4 percent to 810½p. In the insurance sector, rumors that Prudential was thinking of acquiring Royal & Sun Alliance sent shares in both companies lower.

RSA fell 0.3 percent to 95½p and Prudential was down by 1.2 percent to 500½p.

Companies that rely heavily on oil products were down on the day as crude oil prices rose again. British Airways lost 1.8 percent to 288¾p, while cruise operator Carnival fell 2.7 percent to £28.85.