London close: One-month high for Footsie

13th Dec 2010 16:33

More than £2bn of merger and acquisition activity got pulses racing in City dealing rooms, combining with strong miners and gains on Wall Street to send London to its highest in a month.Oilfield services group Wood Group is forking out $955m (£607m) for rival PSN, which it will merge with its production facilities business, creating Wood Group PSN. It will be run by PSN's chief executive Bob Keiller who'll also join the board.Traders also appreciated news of continued progress at most of the company's key divisions. The overall performance for 2010 is likely to be slightly ahead of expectations, it said.Sticking with the oil equipment and services sector, America's General Electric is paying almost £800m for Britain's Wellstream. An initial approach in September valued at 750p a share was firmly rejected, but 780p plus a 6p special dividend proved too tempting.Household products group Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to buy privately owned Indian firm Paras Pharmaceuticals for around £460m. Reckitt, which already owns famous brands like Finish dishwasher tablets and Harpic limescale remover, will add cold and flu remedies, a treatment for prickly heat and anti fungal creams to its portfolio.Chemicals group Yule Catto chipped in a deal to buy Germany's PolymerLatex for €443m (£376m). A 4-3 rights issue to raise £225m will help pay for it.Away from M&A, miners ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata rallied as copper hit new highs on the London Metal Exchange.Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) has given short shrift to a proposal by David Simon, chairman and chief executive of US Mall owner Simon Property, that the US group subscribes to a sale of up to 205.5m of Capital Shopping shares priced at 400p each to fund the £1.6bn Trafford deal. "Completely impracticable," is CSC's response.Banknote printer De la Rue has appointed Tim Cobbold as chief executive and an executive director of the company, starting in January. He joins De La Rue from Chloride Group. His first job will be to see off the bid attentions of French group Oberthur.News that asking prices for houses fell by 3% between November and December - the fifth decline in the past six months - brought housebuilders down to earth. The likes of Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, Bovis Homes, Barratt and Persimmon - all up sharply since the start of the month - headed the list of FTSE 250 fallers.But ITV picked up after it reported bumper advertising revenues for the weekend final of X Factor won by Matt Cardle.Mattress and sofa company Airsprung said sales for the six months ended 30 September 2010 fell by 12.8% as it struggled against a very difficult retail environment for beds and furniture.Gene therapy company Oxford Biomedica sank to new lows after announcing a £20m fundraising at 5p a share, including a 2 for 9 open offer.FTSE 100 - RisersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,592.00p +4.12%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,594.00p +3.98%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,493.00p +3.47%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,543.00p +3.07%Wolseley (WOS) 1,880.00p +2.84%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,338.00p +2.77%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,755.00p +2.68%TUI Travel (TT.) 238.00p +2.50%Rexam (REX) 310.90p +2.44%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,524.00p +2.27%FTSE 100 - FallersCobham (COB) 205.90p -1.72%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 630.00p -1.41%Serco Group (SRP) 565.50p -1.31%G4S (GFS) 250.00p -0.83%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 645.50p -0.77%Compass Group (CPG) 573.50p -0.69%Capita Group (CPI) 679.00p -0.66%Carnival (CCL) 2,740.00p -0.62%Prudential (PRU) 655.00p -0.61%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 98.75p -0.60%FTSE 250 - RisersYule Catto & Co (YULC) 290.00p +11.54%John Wood Group (WG.) 521.00p +6.72%Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 790.00p +5.76%Savills (SVS) 387.70p +5.64%Fenner (FENR) 337.60p +5.01%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 27.47p +4.85%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 396.30p +4.56%Spectris (SXS) 1,267.00p +4.37%CPP Group (CPP) 285.00p +3.75%Henderson Group (HGG) 131.90p +3.69%FTSE 250 - FallersRedrow (RDW) 128.10p -5.46%JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 435.00p -4.40%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 28.34p -2.98%Berkeley Group Holdings (BKG) 885.00p -2.85%Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 387.00p -2.71%Persimmon (PSN) 406.90p -2.61%Drax Group (DRX) 376.00p -2.54%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 87.35p -2.46%Bellway (BWY) 636.50p -2.08%Regus (RGU) 80.00p -1.96%