London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.1% at 7,176.78 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Educational publisher Pearson surged to the top of the index after saying it had rejected two preliminary and highly conditional takeover approaches from US asset manager Apollo Global Management.
Earlier in the day, Apollo said in a statement that it was in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible cash offer for the educational publisher.
In response, Pearson said it had rejected one offer at 800p a share and another at 854.2p a share, which would value the business at around £6.4bn. Pearson said both approaches “significantly” undervalued the company and its future prospects.
Anglo-Russian precious metals miner Polymetal was on the front foot, having lost ground recently amid worries about the impact of sanctions on Russia.
Travel-related shares also rose after recent losses, with BA and Iberia owner IAG, InterContinental Hotels and Premier Inn owner Whitbread all up.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo lost its shine as gold prices fell back.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Pearson (PSON) 781.60p 20.32%
Polymetal International (POLY) 169.00p 11.74%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 123.90p 8.97%
Entain (ENT) 1,567.00p 6.96%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 9,098.00p 6.51%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,198.00p 5.79%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 138.96p 5.61%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,038.00p 4.91%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,716.00p 4.70%
Informa (INF) 560.20p 4.51%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 732.00p -4.46%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,054.00p -1.77%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,841.00p -1.35%
National Grid (NG.) 1,121.00p -1.09%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 4,004.00p -1.04%
SSE (SSE) 1,657.50p -0.87%
BP (BP.) 360.45p -0.84%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,715.00p -0.37%
BAE Systems (BA.) 731.60p -0.35%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 118.18p -0.25%
