FTSE 100 movers: Axa's Asia move lights up life sector

9th Nov 2009 10:57

Life insurers lead the way forward this morning, excited by Axa and AMP's joint $10bn bid for their associate and Far East focused fund manager Axa Asia Pacific.Prudential is the best performer. It too has a significant and fast growing Asian operation and analysts are drawing a line through the price offered for AAP to talk up the Pru's valuation. Legal & General is also up in sympathy.Inmarsat is another good performer. Surging data revenues helped the satellite operator lift profits by nearly a third over the past three months. Revenue overall in the three months to September rose by 8.7% to $176.7m (2008: $162.5m). Profit before tax rose by 31% to $70m. Free cash flow rose 6% to $102.9m (2008: $54.0m).There are only a handful of fallers on a strong day for the index so far and those that are lower are only maginally down.FTSE 100 - RisersPrudential (PRU) 609.00p +5.36%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,275.00p +5.11%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 38.87p +4.88%Inmarsat (ISAT) 620.50p +4.37%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,037.50p +4.13%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 83.00p +4.01%Antofagasta (ANTO) 887.00p +3.93%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,136.00p +3.74%FTSE 100 - FallersImperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,814.00p -0.49%British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,949.50p -0.48%Cable & Wireless (CW.) 138.50p -0.36%Diageo (DGE) 1,002.00p -0.10%