London close: Drugs leave Footsie on a high
London celebrated Thanksgiving with bumper gains, moving higher through the session on stronger drug stocks and a utility sector buoyed by news of an approach for Kelda.
The water group rallied after receiving an approach from a consortium made up of Citigroup Alternative Investments, GIC Special Investments, Infracapital Partners and HSBC.
The bidding group has indicated to Kelda that shareholders would receive in aggregate 1,100.65p cash per share, plus the right to retain any proposed interim dividend. United Utilities and Northumbrian Water joined the advance.
US broker Citigroup raised the European healthcare sector to "neutral" from "underweight" boosting AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Shire and Smith & Nephew.
Meanwhile, properties are led higher by Hammerson and Land Securities as the sector begins to recover from recent weakness. Property services group First Property did well after it saw assets under management rise by 167% in the six months to end-September and said its chosen markets of Poland and Romania have not been affected by the recent market turmoil.
Power suppliers British Energy, Drax and National Grid all surged ahead on broker comment. Goldman Sachs has upped its price target on the former to 716p from 682p and to 861p from 814p for Drax. ING has started coverage of National Grid with a "buy" recommendation.
Supermarket Wm Morrison has made an encouraging start to the second half of its financial year, sending it shares soaring. Like for like sales in the 14 weeks to 4 November were up by 3.7% excluding fuel. In consequence, in the 39 weeks, like for like sales were up by 3.1% excluding fuel.
Miners were off colour though as copper fell to an eight-month low in London. Xstrata, Antofagasta, Vedanta Resources, Kazakhmys and Anglo American turned lower.
Shares in Jarvis nose-dived Thursday after the rail infrastructure group warned that full-year results are likely to be materially below expectations.
Tullow Oil eases back though on news it has plugged and abandoned a well in Gabon.
Bike and car parts retailer Halfords reversed early losses. It increased first-half underlying pre-tax profit by 9.4% to £47.6m, adding that trading in the second half had been in line with its expectations. Revenue rose by 8.5% to £400.7m.
Electrical goods retailer Kesa Electricals reported underlying group sales grew by 3% in the third quarter, but said the consumer environment was uncertain. Towards the end of the period it began to see signs of a slow down in the white goods market, it added, which has sent its share price tumbling. DSG has followed in sympathy.
England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 has already prompted Sports Direct and Umbro to revise their trading outlook. Both have been marked down heavily, as has Rank, which owns online betting operation Blue Square.
Pub group Mitchells & Butlers, which may also be affected by an absence of British teams in Euro 2008 was further troubled by a downgrade from Morgan Stanley, which now has the shares on an "equal weight" rating, down from "over weight" with the share price target clipped to 700p from 850p.
Banks mostly reversed earlier losses, but Northern Rock remained under par. Buy-to-let specialist Paragon clawed back some of its recent losses, while high yielding Alliance & Leicester made progress.
On the second line, Galiform is going well after a trading statement, though a profit warnings hammered Psion while Phoenix IT's results and boardroom shake-up unnerved investors.
Russia-focused oil producer Imperial Energy falls back on news it has ended talks with Gazprombank over the Russian group buying up to a 25% stake.
Ptarmigan Property is wanted after proposing to go into voluntary liquidation as a means of returning cash to shareholders. The board said "the current turmoil in the financial markets is likely to have a negative effect on capital values, which will inevitably flow through to land values, placing substantially more risk on the company's business than has existed for a considerable number of years."
Iron ore pellets firm Ferrexpo advances after saying it will spend $158m to boost output by 15% over the next 3 years.
Voice over internet protocol specialist Vyke Communications issued a statement denying any knowledge of the reason for the recent slide in the company's share price. The board's assertion that it continues to be encouraged with trading in the company did the trick in halting the slide and the shares are trading up on the day.
No-frills airline owner Dart Group experienced share price turbulence after warning that underlying profitability for the year will be significantly reduced from last year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 293.50p +8.30%
Hammerson (HMSO) 990.00p +7.20%
British Energy Group (BGY) 491.50p +7.14%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,231.00p +6.59%
Centrica (CNA) 355.50p +5.72%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,446.00p +5.62%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,221.00p +5.26%
ICAP (IAP) 647.00p +4.86%
United Utilities (UU.) 703.50p +4.61%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 602.50p +4.60%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
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Xstrata (XTA) 2,869.00p -2.71%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 639.00p -2.59%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 344.00p -2.06%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 570.00p -1.89%
DSG International (DSGI) 105.10p -1.78%
Friends Provident (FP.) 148.60p -1.52%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 977.50p -1.46%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 598.00p -1.40%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,900.00p -1.35%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 182.00p -1.09%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Kelda Group (KEL) 1,055.00p +12.59%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 89.50p +11.87%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,259.00p +10.47%
Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) 329.75p +10.10%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 224.00p +10.07%
eaga (EAGA) 181.00p +9.20%
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 223.00p +7.73%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,407.00p +6.59%
Derwent London (DLN) 1,406.00p +6.52%
Quintain Estates & Development (QED) 565.00p +6.30%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Sports Direct International (SPD) 96.00p -14.67%
Rank Group (RNK) 77.75p -5.18%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 72.25p -4.93%
Rightmove (RMV) 464.25p -4.62%
Savills (SVS) 281.50p -4.41%
Debenhams (DEB) 94.50p -3.82%
Expro International Group (EXR) 1,050.00p -3.67%
Wincanton (WIN) 401.00p -3.66%
Axon Group (AXO) 660.00p -3.37%
LogicaCMG (LOG) 115.50p -2.94%
