Bid talks, US employment data supports London stocks

A better than forecast US jobs report and increasing talks around bids for software company Autonomy and power company Aggreko served to boost the FTSE 100 index by 1.06 per cent or 57.11 points through Friday's trading session. The majority of stocks moved up through the day prompting the FTSE 100 index to close at 5,428.15.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Friday, September 03, 2010

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Fears about the global economic recovery has been central to investors' minds recently and the surprisingly positive US non-farm payrolls data have UK stocks a solid push in early afternoon trading. Top performers include Cable & Wireless Worldwide, up 4.51 per cent, Barclays up 4.21 per cent and Kazakhmys up 3.05 per cent.

However at the top of the list today is Aggreko. Shares in Aggreko gained 5.5 per cent in value to close at 1,515p. Traders talking on the FT Alphaville website suggested that the company might be courted by Swiis engineering group ABB. Also still subject to buyout talks is Autonomy Corporation which moved up by 3.44 per cent.

At the bottom of the list is Tullow Oil. The oil explorer is still being haunted by recent reports that it may have its exploration licenses revoked in some of its top fields in Africa. The company moved down by 2.28 per cent.

FTSE 250 stocks shared in the gains today. The index of mid-cap stocks climbed by 0.62 per cent, closing at 10,204 points. Beleaguered services group Connaught lost 12.26 per cent. Premier Foods however is up 20.9 per cent and Lamprell the supplier of oil and gas extraction and exploration businesses climbed by 13.60 per cent.

 

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