Royal Bank of Scotland leads FTSE charge
Royal Bank of Scotland today led an advance for the London market, as investors cheered news that it was working on a bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro.
A gain of more than 3% for the group helped the FTSE 100 Index build on Friday’s six-year high with a rise of 30.8 points to 6493.2 by mid-morning.
RBS was 72p higher at 2095p after it emerged that it was looking at ABN in conjunction with Belgium's Fortis and Spain’s Santander banks.
The news provided a lift to the rest of the sector with Bradford & Bingley up nearly 2%, or 8.25p to 467.25p, and Lloyds TSB 9.5p higher at 584p.
Barclays slipped back from earlier gains but was 8.5p ahead at 752p amid speculation that the bank will not be rushed into tabling an offer for ABN.
Imperial Tobacco led the Footsie fallers, with a near 2% loss, despite speculation that the firm behind Embassy cigarettes could be poised to make a renewed offer for Franco-Spanish tobacco group Altadis. The stock was down 41p at 2221p.
Continued takeover activity at Alliance Boots also did nothing to help its shares as the stock fell 6.5p to 1052.5p, despite reports that private equity group Terra Firma had received access to the pharmacy giant’s books as it prepares to table an offer for the group.
Metal prices boosted the mining sector with Vedanta Resources ahead 27p at 1424p, BHP Billiton up 18p at 1170p and Rio Tinto rising 43p to 3158p.
Kingfisher slipped 1p to 269p as investors continued to fret about the impact of warm weather on sales during the key trading period for the B&Q retailer.
Elsewhere, music group EMI fell 3.25p to 222.75p after reports of weak album share figures for the group, which could undermine a potential tie-up with Warner Music.
