LONDON (ShareCast) - Bid talk dominated proceedings in London, prompting leading shares to advance on a broad front, although stocks finished off their best levels.

Alliance and Leicester (A&L) succumbed to a £1.3bn offer from Banco Santander offer, worth 317p a share, including an expected interim dividend. The bid was the only offer on the table, A&L’s chief executive said, but with the share price trading above the value of the Santander offer the market seems to be expecting a rival bid to emerge from somewhere.

Bradford & Bingley, the UK mortgage lender that was left at the altar by US private equity group Texas Pacific (TPG) on Independence Day (4 July), rose strongly in sympathy.

Financials were in good health anyway after the board of the Federal Reserve, chaired by Ben Bernanke, voted to allow the New York Federal Reserve to lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should such lending "prove necessary".

Bid speculation also bolstered broadcaster ITV, where John de Mol, the co-founder of TV production company Endemol, is rumoured to be considering a bid. Other reports suggested that parties have already approached ITV boss Sir Michael Grade about taking a large stake should current major shareholder BSkyB be forced to sell its shareholding.

Kazakhmys responded to speculation by confirming that it is in very early stage bid talks. Market rumours suggest that Russia's Metalloinvest could be the party interested in bidding for the copper miner.

The sliding oil price depressed Royal Dutch Shell, Tullow Oil and Cairn Energy but was welcomed by heavy fuel user Carnival, the cruise operator, and airline stocks such as British Airways and easyJet.

Rexam jumped higher after Goldman Sachs raised its rating on the can maker to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ saying the current share price is a good entry point offering exposure to the company’s relatively resilient drinks cans operations.

Russia-focused oil group Imperial Energy has received a bid approach. "In response to press speculation, the board of Imperial confirms that it has received an approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company," it said. Imperial is worth over £1bn after today's jump.

Africa-focused miner First Quantum achieve d a new quarterly record in copper production in the second quarter.

UBS has lowered its rating on Thomson Reuters to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’, saying the company’s news services are likely to see reduced revenues over the fourth quarter.

The Swiss broker lifted its rating on Johnson Matthey to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’, saying the speciality chemicals firm has underperformed competitors recently.

Real estate investment trust Land Securities was firmer after being upgraded to “neutral” by Goldman Sachs.

Elsewhere, Dawnay, Day Carpathian and Dawnay, Day Sirius, two funds managed by cash strapped Dawnay Day, moved to distance themselves from the fund manager’s problems and stated their finances are completely separate.

Insurer Friends Provident has scrapped plans to sell its financial advice unit Pantheon Financial. The group said it has decided to retain ownership to avoid disruption in the business due to the ongoing speculation on changes of ownership.

Swiss biotech firm Actelion has chosen GlaxoSmithKline as is partner to develop and market its sleep medicine almorexant, in a deal worth up to $3.3bn. GSK will have exclusive worldwide rights to co-develop and co-commercialise almorexant, Actelion said.

Double-digit growth in online revenues, accompanied by significant cost reductions will help publisher Centaur Media hit expectations even though market conditions weakened during the course of 2008.

Gaming software specialist Playtech has signed a four-year, exclusive licensing agreement in respect of two of Paramount Pictures' film releases, 'Gladiator' and 'The Untouchables'.

Property group St Modwen has written off a net £37.7m from the book value of its residential sites and £16.9m off its commercial portfolio as a result of the property market slump.

Flooring and fabric specialist Low & Bonar boosted interim profit before tax, amortisation and non-recurring items by 62% to £12m on revenue u 50% to £213.4m.

Each of the Hamworthy's main product groups has performed in accordance with expectations, the marine fluid-handling systems firm said Monday. The near-term outlook is underpinned by the strength of its order book, at £301m on 30 June.

Revenue and profits for the six months ended 30 June 2008 are expected to be significantly ahead of analyst expectations at data management specialist SDL. This will have a positive impact on the expected result for the full year, it says.

Emerald Energy has more than tripled half year profit after tax despite a drop in production thanks to rocketing oil prices.


FTSE 100 - Risers
ITV (ITV) 42.90p +12.01%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,228.00p +8.00%
Rexam (REX) 365.50p +6.72%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,515.00p +6.17%
ICAP (IAP) 435.75p +4.94%
Schroders (SDR) 846.50p +4.31%
British Airways (BAY) 207.25p +4.09%
Liberty International (LII) 850.00p +4.04%
3i Group (III) 816.50p +4.01%
Old Mutual (OML) 89.20p +3.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Thomson Reuters (TRIL) 1,245.00p -3.11%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,678.00p -2.27%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 198.70p -2.24%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 848.00p -2.14%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,791.00p -1.86%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 2,430.00p -1.50%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 180.00p -1.48%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,892.00p -1.41%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,915.00p -1.29%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 534.50p -1.29%

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