London close: Footsie passes 6,600 barrier
Bumper gains from Northern Rock, strong brewers, buoyant utilities and early gains in the US helped Footsie close well above the 6,600 mark.
The mortgage lender rallied on reports that a fifth US buy-out group, Lone Star, is interested.
News that the government extended its support to cover all retail deposits at the bank whether deposited before or after 19 September helped. Northern also hopes to have its strategic options sorted by next February. Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley were up in sympathy.
Water company Severn Trent was going well along with other water utilities following the sale of Southern Water to a consortium of infrastructure funds led by JPMorgan Chase for ₤4.2bn. Northumbrian Water and Kelda were also in demand.
Rumours of a bid for Scottish & Newcastle from Carlsberg resurfaced and gave the brewer a boost, while rival SABMiller was better on news of a deal with Molson Coors to combine their US and Puerto Rico operations in a joint venture.
British American Tobacco puffed higher after JP Morgan kept its 'overweight' rating on the cigarettes giant with 1,850p price target, while confectionary giant Cadbury Schweppes was better ahead of tomorrow's trading update.
Housebuilders remained unloved though, with Persimmon and Redrow lower, while Taylor Wimpey recovered after UBS cut the shares to 'neutral' from 'buy'.
Kazakhmys and Antofagasta were among the worst performing blue chips on weaker metal prices.
Among the mid-caps, news that Burren Energy rejected a 1,050p cash per share bid from Italian oil giant Eni had shares in the oil group gushing higher.
Anglo-Dutch IT services firm LogicaCMG was in the blue after it poached Andy Green, currently head of strategy and operations at BT, to be its new chief executive. He takes over from acting chief executive Jim McKenna at the start of 2008.
Carpet and floor covering specialist Carpetright received a revised cash offer from a consortium led by its founder, chairman and chief executive Lord Harris priced at 1,250p a share.
In a separate statement, the firm said sales for the 23 weeks to 6 October have increased by 10.3%, with Europe standing out after a 13.8% hike in sales, or 8.1% on a like for like basis.
Northern Foods said its trading performance in the first half continued in line with expectations, although costs soared in what the group called a "challenging" environment. Underlying revenue increased by 2.6% on the year before, with the chilled business reporting sales 5.4% higher and volumes growing strongly at ready meals.
Clinton Cards posted an adjusted operating profit of £20.9m in the year to July, up from £10.6m. In the nine weeks to 30 September, Clinton said like-for-like sales were up 2%, while sales at its Birthdays chain were up 4.8% like-for-like.
Mail order womenswear specialist N Brown reported a better than expected 17.5% increase in half year pre-tax profit and said trading has been "encouraging" at the start of the second half.
High street bakery Greggs saw its like-for-like sales performance improve since July's interims thanks to favourable weather in August and September. Like-for-like sales in the first 16 weeks of the second half to 6 October grew by 5.9%, including core volume growth of 1.8%.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Northern Rock (NRK) 206.75p +19.86%
British Land (BLND) 1,147.00p +5.04%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,196.00p +4.45%
British Energy Group (BGY) 575.00p +3.79%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 297.25p +3.39%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,155.00p +3.31%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,694.00p +3.29%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,765.00p +3.16%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,309.00p +3.02%
Punch Taverns (PUB) 1,076.00p +2.97%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,463.00p -2.60%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,015.00p -2.40%
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Wolseley (WOS) 855.00p -2.12%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 740.00p -2.05%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 803.50p -0.86%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 579.50p -0.77%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 287.50p -0.61%
Sage Group (SGE) 248.00p -0.50%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 558.00p -0.45%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 342.75p -0.44%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Burren Energy (BUR) 1,180.00p +27.98%
LogicaCMG (LOG) 166.75p +10.25%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,120.00p +8.21%
Severfield-Rowen (SFR) 567.00p +6.48%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,187.00p +5.89%
Greggs (GRG) 4,910.00p +5.59%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,667.00p +5.51%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,316.00p +5.45%
Alfred McAlpine (MCA) 523.50p +5.12%
Carpetright (CPR) 1,215.00p +4.65%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Chemring Group (CHG) 1,874.00p -4.58%
Galiform (GFRM) 119.00p -3.45%
DS Smith (SMDS) 202.00p -3.35%
BSS Group (BTSM) 444.75p -3.32%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 390.00p -3.29%
SIG (SHI) 1,053.00p -3.22%
Benfield Group (BFD) 282.25p -3.01%
Speedy Hire (SDY) 1,082.00p -2.87%
Game Group (GMG) 197.00p -2.84%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 280.50p -2.43%
