London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,046.50 in afternoon trade on Monday.
BT Group slumped after pay-TV provider Sky was reported to be considering investing in Virgin Media O2’s fibre rollout.
Morrisons was also under the cosh after US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice won an auction for the supermarket chains with a £7bn bid. The win was revealed by the Takeover Panel on Saturday. CD&R offered 287p a share, against a rival bid from Fortress, for 286p per share. Rival Sainsbury’s was the top gainer, however, while Tesco also advanced.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said investors were speculating that Sainsbury’s would be the next takeover target in the supermarket sector.
“Fortress, which was unlucky in the Morrisons bid, is seen to be eager to make a large transaction, so one must wonder if Sainsbury’s is the next logical business to tick all the right boxes for the US dealmaker,” he said.
Catering group Compass fell after it said chief financial officer Karen Witts will step down from the role at the end of October. The company said Palmer Brown, currently its group commercial director, has been appointed to replace Witts on 1 November.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 297.60p 4.60%
Informa (INF) 575.60p 2.64%
Glencore (GLEN) 359.85p 2.61%
BP (BP.) 346.50p 2.53%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) 1,684.00p 2.33%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 114.80p 2.32%
Tesco (TSCO) 253.65p 2.30%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ (RDSA) 1,684.20p 2.21%
Aviva (AV.) 402.20p 2.13%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,557.50p 2.00%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
BT Group (BT.A) 152.40p -4.06%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 285.90p -3.74%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,525.00p -2.15%
SEGRO (SGRO) 1,190.50p -1.37%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,368.50p -1.16%
3i Group (III) 1,266.50p -1.13%
Avast (AVST) 559.60p -1.06%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,622.00p -1.06%
Pearson (PSON) 718.80p -1.05%
Rightmove (RMV) 675.60p -1.03%
