Sector movers: Banks rise on consolidation hopes
Banks are in demand, led by mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester, which shot ahead today on reports that it held takeover talks with Abbey owner Santander last month.
The talks apparently faltered because of a disagreement over the price of any offer, but the Spanish group is still said to be interested, both the FT and The Times said.
Santander's interest is said to have been sparked by the slump in A&L's value in the wake of the collapse of Northern Rock and subsequent credit crunch. The reports said Santander's offer valued A&L at more than £2.7bn. Analysts say Santander is keen to expand its presence in the UK market. It bought Abbey in 2004.
Fellow mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley moved up sharply in sympathy.
Increasing political tensions of the sort seen in Pakistan is never good news for travel companies, and the likes of TUI Travel, Thomas Cook and Intercontinental Hotels are all trading lower today.
On the Leisure side of the sector shareholders in Neville Porter look to have backed a loser, as the on-course bookmaker continues to see its price shortened following a disappointing maiden set of results announced just after Christmas.
Losses in the seven months to June came in at £913,000 on sales of £6.67m. Operating losses were £265,000, put down to punters placing some "considerable successful bets".
In addition, Neville Porter wrote off 60% of the value of its on-course bookmaking pitches, at a cost of £552,000, following parliamentary moves to allow racecourse owners to charge bookmakers to attend race days and to withdraw the current pitch system from 2012. The 40% residual value will be written off in equal instalments over the next four years, though Porter says it hopes a solution will reached to restore the value of its pitches.
Top performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 4,536.80 +1.95%
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Forestry & Paper 4,637.10 +1.30%
Banks 8,972.30 +1.22%
Food Producers & Processors 4,961.60 +1.06%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,814.30 +1.04%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals 7,311.60 -1.79%
Travel & Leisure 5,544.60 -0.97%
Construction & Materials 5,220.60 -0.38%
Life Insurance 5,475.70 -0.16%
Chemicals 5,039.70 -0.05%
