London close: M&A outweighs mining slide
London followed Wall Street lower mid-afternoon then matched a subsequent recovery, ending the session with slim gains as bid speculation cancelled weak miners.
Credit checking firm Experian rallied as dealers considered news of a $29bn bid for US peer First Data from private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
BT also jumped as investors got excited about an offer from AT&T and America Movil to buy two thirds of Olimpia, which owns an 18% controlling stake in Telecom Italia.
Investors continued to cheer contract caterer Compass following bullish comments with its trading statement last week. Brokers were positive, although vague bid chat has also stirred some buying activity.
Shares in Vodafone also made a partial recovery from Friday's sell-off that followed a disappointing trading update. Dresdner Kleinwort repeated 'buy' advice and 200p target.
On the downside, miners dropped on falling metal prices, with Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta all out of favour.
Recent bid favourite Scottish and Newcastle was the worst performing blue chip as rumours of a 700p per share offer for the brewer from Heineken began to fade.
Meanwhile, Alliance Boots ended just in front on reports of a possible offer from European rival Celesio, which could force the KKR/Pessina consortium to include an equity element in their bid.
In results news, mortgage bank Northern Rock reported strong trading in the first quarter of its current year, with a 34% rise in net lending. The bank added it is comfortable with analysts' consensus forecast for a full-year underlying profit of £434m.
British Land and Land Securities got a boost from a bullish review of the sector from broker HSBC. British Land goes up to 'overweight' from 'neutral' with target price raised to 1,730p from 1,682p on valuation grounds, while Land Securities is up to 'neutral' from 'underweight' with 2,240p target versus 2,201p before.
Carphone Warehouse ended its latest quarter with subscription connections up 14% to 1.02m, total connections up 8.3% to 2.41m and 2.27m broadband subscribers, with 702,000 on unbundled lines.
The firm added it expects to pay additional customer service costs of £10-15m in the coming year to cure its teething broadband problems and will incur start-up costs of £10-15m on its Best Buy Mobile venture and its joint venture with Virgin Mobile in France.
Tool hire group Speedy Hire says trading for the first 11 months of the year has been strong with revenue increasing by 34%. This increase reflects Speedy's organic growth, 20 new greenfield depots and two strategically important acquisitions, LCH Generators and Lifting Gear Hire.
US firm Syniverse Technologies is to acquire the European wireless clearing and financial settlement business of Billing Services for approximately $290m in cash, which includes debt to be refinanced. Billing Services will also undertake a $105m refinancing of its continuing wireline business.
Care home group Southern Cross Healthcare said operating performance is ahead of expectations and added that it has agreed to operate a further 29 care homes.
Software group Clarity Commerce Solutions warned revenues and profits for the year to March 31 would be well below analysts' forecasts, "due to a slippage in the timing of contracts."
IT group IS Solutions slumped despite underlying profits rising by 39% in 2006 and the company giving a bullish update on current trading with its figures on Friday.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Experian (EXPN) 604.50p +3.25%
British Airways (BAY) 499.00p +2.67%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 694.00p +2.59%
Cable and Wireless (CW.) 170.70p +2.46%
Compass Group (CPG) 348.25p +2.43%
BT Group (BT.A) 310.00p +2.06%
British Land (BLND) 1,558.00p +1.96%
William Morrison (MRW) 314.50p +1.86%
Reuters Group (RTR) 474.50p +1.82%
ICAP (IAP) 540.00p +1.79%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Scottish and Newcastle (SCTN) 589.50p -2.00%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 656.00p -1.87%
(Article continues below)Advertisement
Antofagasta (ANTO) 509.00p -1.69%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,265.00p -1.66%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,155.00p -1.37%
Standard Life (SL.) 312.50p -1.11%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,450.00p -0.96%
Shire (SHP) 1,039.00p -0.95%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 1,161.00p -0.94%
BP (BP.) 547.50p -0.82%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Southern Cross Healthcare (SCHE) 466.75p +7.11%
Speedy Hire (SDY) 1,212.00p +3.59%
Henderson Group (HGI) 151.50p +3.41%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 620.00p +3.33%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,009.00p +2.96%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,622.00p +2.92%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 167.75p +2.91%
Renishaw (RSW) 777.00p +2.91%
National Express (NEX) 1,298.00p +2.85%
RPS Group (RPS) 334.50p +2.84%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Northern Foods (NFDS) 119.50p -3.43%
TNS (TNN) 229.00p -3.17%
Wincanton (WIN) 362.00p -2.75%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 282.00p -2.67%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 379.00p -2.07%
Laird Group (LARD) 535.00p -1.92%
HMV Media (HMV) 108.50p -1.81%
CSR (CSR) 639.50p -1.77%
Minerva (MNR) 375.25p -1.70%
Expro International (EXR) 868.00p -1.70%
