LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie finished the week on a high after a jittery day’s trading which nearly saw the index dip into the red after a poor start on Wall Street.

Bid talk in the supermarket sector helped fuel the late surge. Sainsbury’s jumped into the blue as traders raised the prospect of a 510p to 525p a share bid. The supermarket had spent much of the day toiling after Citigroup lowered its target price on peer Wm Morrison to 320p from 375p, despite the company reporting an 18.5% rise in first half underlying pre-tax profits. Wm Morrison and Tesco also recovered

Miners were also a bright spot. ENRC, Kazakhmys, Xstrata, Anglo American and Rio Tinto are higher. Copper is the best performer among the metals.

Thomson owner TUI Travel advanced. It said it wass doing everything it can to assist XL's customers stranded abroad in their repatriation to the UK. TUI investors, though, are celebrating the benefits of a big competitor disappearing. Thomas Cook also jumped.

Wolseley was the heaviest faller after slowing UK and US housing markets prompted Citigroup to lower its recommendation on the building materials group to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’.

French Connection's first-half losses rose to £3.5m from a loss of £2.5m on sales of £112m, up from £109m. Recent retail trading in UK/Europe has shown growth over last year, although North America has been softer, it added.

Recruitment group SThree's international business continues to offset tougher conditions in the UK and the business overall continues to meet its expectations.

Gemfields Resources has launched a bid for Tanzanite One at 45p through a mix of cash and shares. The proposed offer values the whole of the of T1 at approximately £33m.

Northern Recruitment has scrapped the final dividend following a 42% plunge in full year profit as companies tighten their belts and scale back or ditch recruitment plans.

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