LONDON (ShareCast) - UK shares remain on a high after the FSA plans to crack down on short-sellers, with the FTSE on track to post the largest single-day percentage gain since the short-lived rally following Black Monday in 1987.

Banks remain the best performers, but are off the top. Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Bradford & Bingley, HBOS, and Lloyds TSB are the major winners in the sector.

From midnight last night, the UK financial regulator introduced new provisions to the Code of Market Conduct "to prohibit the active creation or increase of net short positions in publicly quoted financial companies". Sentiment was also boosted by similar moves in the US.

HSBC has walked away from its offer to buy a 51% stake in Korea Exchange Bank, citing the current turmoil in the financial markets. "Discussions with Lone Star have not led to agreement on how the transaction might proceed on a basis acceptable to HSBC," the group said.

A private equity consortium led by Providence Equity Partners has scrapped its offer to buy conferences and publishing group Informa,reportedly due to problems raising the finance for the deal. The consortium's decision marks one of the first large deals to collapse since the onset of the credit crunch.

Pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline has confirmed that Variable Sales Forward (VSF) agreements with Lehman Brothers Finance SA have been terminated. The VSF agreements relate to 20m common shares of Quest Diagnostics.

Expectations that the current economic turmoil will boost bus use at the expense of trains prompted JP Morgan to raise its target prices on Arriva, National Express and Stagecoach.

JP Morgan has lifted its target price on the aircraft services group BBA by 2p to 103p to reflect the stronger dollar, but remains ‘underweight’ on the stock given the economic risks it faces.

Altium Securities has raised its rating on engineering design software provider Aveva to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ on valuation grounds.

The broker notes that shares in Aveva have fallen by more than a quarter since the beginning of the month in line with general turmoil and the falling oil price.

The Western Health and Social Care Trust has named an Interserve consortium preferred bidder for the PFI contract to create and maintain a new acute hospital at Enniskillen.

Online gaming group PartyGaming has appointed Jon Salmon as its new chief marketing officer. Salmon will join PartyGaming from Ads Dot Com next month and will report directly to chief executive Jim Ryan.

Environmental consultant RPS is on the acquisition trail again, snapping up MSL, a European provider of specialist laboratory services. RPS is acquiring MSL from its management for a maximum cash consideration of £1.9m.

Aggregates group Ennstone has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company.

The share price of direct marketing group DM fell sharply after the company said the credit crunch had put paid to hopes of a takeover. The company had been in discussions with a number of parties about a possible buy-out, but these have now been terminated. All of the parties interested in acquiring DM were unable to secure the required level of debt financing in the current turbulent banking environment.

Wireless electronics group Filtronic is considering paying a special dividend of 40p a share, possibly by the end of October, and has appointed Hemant Mardia as its new chief executive.

Medusa Mining has rallied on news that Hong Kong based merchant bank Crosby Capital has offered A$182m (£81.9m) for the Australia-based group.

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