The London equities markets were up on the day Friday, with the FTSE 100 up 0.9 percent to 6,091.7 and the FTSE 250 gaining 1.52 percent to 10,017.9. It was the first time the 250 has closed above 10,000. The 100 added 1.1 percent during the week, while the 250 was up 2.3 percent on the week.

The banking sector made news as rumors spread that Alliance & Leicester was in takeover talks with Spanish bank Santander. Despite both banks denials, Alliance & Leicester ended the day with a gain of 6.95 percent to £12 after having gone as high as £12.77 earlier in the day.

Retailer Marks & Spencer added 3.3 percent on the day to 620p on talk of a possible share buyback. It was also rumored that M&S will announce plans for a store remodel program when it releases its full-year report later in the month. Elsewhere in the sector, Kingfisher added 2.7 percent on the day to 237p on bid rumors. On the other hand, Matalan dropped 1.4 percent to 187¾p on a lowered target share price, down to 105p, from Credit Suisse.

In the telecommunications sector, testing company Spirent gained 3.26 percent to 47½p on comments that its low share price makes it an attractive bid target.

Pubs operator Greene King was up 9.9 percent to 826½p on a Merrill Lynch upgrade to “buy”.

The London equities markets were up on the day Friday and on the week as a whole, largely on substantial gains in the properties sector. The FTSE 100 was up 0.7 percent on Friday and gained 0.6 percent for the week as a whole to close at 6,036.3, the second time this week that it closed above the 6,000 mark. The FTSE 250 was up 0.8 percent on the day and gained 0.9 percent on the week, closing at 9,929.9. Friday’s trading volume amounted to 3.8 billion shares.

Banks were up on the same changes to real estate investment rules that helped the properties sector. Royal Bank of Scotland was up 1 percent to £18.67, while Anglo Irish Bank gained 1.4 percent to €13.44.

Among insurers, Prudential was down 4.8 percent to 681p when Aviva withdrew its bid for the company. However, Aviva reserved the right to renew its offer if another bid for Prudential materialized. This, some analysts said, meant that Aviva was prepared to mount a hostile takeover push. Aviva was up 1.2 percent to 831½p.

In the telecommunications sector, mobile phone operator Vodafone was down 1.4 percent to 125½p in anticipation of a change in European Union regulations on international roaming charges. Elsewhere the sector, Telent was up 2.1 percent to 408½p and Spirent added 8.3 percent to 48¾p as news that Lucent and Alcatel might merge helped the sector as a whole.

London equities markets were down on Thursday as the FTSE 100 lost 22.8 points to 5,849.3 and the FTSE 250 dropped 9.5 points to 9.462.7. Much of the declines could be attributed to losses by Reuters and weakness in the oil sector.

Reuters was down 10.1 percent to 405¾p despite revenue and profits reports that were about as expected.

Some retailers saw gains on the day. Beauty products retailer Body Shop was up 12.2 percent to 275p on a confirmation of the report that French group L’Oreal is thinking of bidding for the company, even though no firm offer has yet been made. Home furnishing and fashion retailer Laura Ashley, meanwhile, advanced by 12.9 percent to 17½p on an announcement that full-year profits will be higher than had been forecast.

Otherwise, the markets saw a series of declines on the day. In the telecommunications sector, Colt Telecom dropped 5.4 percent to 61½p after it announced a new share offering to raise equity. Investec repeated its “sell” recommendation on the company’s shares and analysts questioned the need and timing for the new offering. Meanwhile, telecommunications testing equipment firm Spirent declined by 2.9 percent to 51.3p after it announced that its full-year pre-tax profit was £4.9 million, much lower than the figure of £15.4 million from the previous year.

Defense contractor BAE Systems dropped 2.2 percent on the day to 437½p on concern over problems with its pension plan.

Utility Centrica dropped 1.1 percent to 293p after the parent company of British Gas reported its annual earnings were down 4 percent due to higher interest and tax bills. It said that it could not guarantee that gas prices would not go up.