London midday: Bid action boosts shares

6th Dec 2010 12:04

Shares are broadly higher, with bid activity in the mid-cap index helping to generate excitement.De La Rue has received a bid, the FTSE 250-listed banknote printer confirmed Monday, thought to be from French rival Oberthur Technologies. Talk is the all-cash deal valued the UK company, also responsible for printing UK passports, at around £800m, a 25% premium to Friday's price tag of £641m. Shares in De La Rue are up nearly 20%.Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest pub company, is on the rise on press reports that private equity group CVC has the debt-heavy group in its sights. Enterprise Inns rises in sympathy.Mobile phone network operator Vodafone is wanted as news filters out that it is close to selling its 44% stake in SFR, the French mobile phone group, for £7bn.Rio Tinto has offered £2.2bn (A$3.5bn) for Riversdale Mining, a Sydney-based firm with interests in African coal. Riversdale confirmed Monday it had held talks with the Anglo-Australian mining giant about a deal valuing the business at A$15 a share.Among today's fallers is African gold miner Randgold Resources, amid concerns over the political turmoil in Ivory Coast, where two prime ministers have been appointed following the elections. Randgold said its recently commissioned Tongon mine in the north of Côte d'Ivoire was operating normally but that it was closely monitoring the political and security situation in the country. Randgold is joined lower by fellow miners Vedanta and ENRC, but elsewhere in mining, Xstrata is going well, while oil stocks such as Heritage and Premier are posting good gains.Contractor Mouchel is mulling a share issue and wholesale disposals to fend off takeover approaches sparked by the recent collapse in its share price.Nestor Healthcare's patience has been rewarded with a £124m bid from the owners of the AA and Saga, almost three months after it rejected an initial approach worth just £102m. Saga Group, a subsidiary of Acromas oldings, is paying 110p a share in cash for the social care firm.Engine designer Rolls-Royce has announced a clutch of contract wins for energy projects across the globe. The contract wins are worth $110m in total. The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation to AstraZeneca's Brilique blood thinning drug. The drug will be in competition with Plavix, the second best selling drug in the world.Defence group Cobham is further beefing up its US surveillance division with the acquisition of RVision for $28m in cash, plus up to a further $20m. Vision specialises in electro-optical and infra-red imaging systems to protect vital installations such as military bases, border security posts, law enforcement, nuclear and chemical plants, ports and harbours and various transport applications. International engineering group IMI is teaming up with the Shanghai Automation Instrumentation Company (SAIC) to form a joint venture to serve the nuclear energy market in China. The proposed joint venture will produce control valves for critical applications for new nuclear power generation plants. The drilling programme of North Falklands oil explorer Desire Petroleum continues to frustrate, as the company has plugged and abandoned the 14/15-2 Rachel North well. Desire's share price virtually halved in early trading, while Rockhopper Exploration, which has a 7.5% interest in the well, also takes on a few dents.FTSE 100 - RisersCapita Group (CPI) 663.00p +4.33%Xstrata (XTA) 1,432.00p +3.02%Compass Group (CPG) 586.50p +2.27%Cairn Energy (CNE) 406.10p +2.09%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,202.00p +2.04%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 640.00p +1.99%Inmarsat (ISAT) 665.00p +1.84%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,112.00p +1.65%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,095.00p +1.48%Wolseley (WOS) 1,817.00p +1.34%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,850.00p -2.99%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 915.00p -1.93%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,151.00p -1.87%Barclays (BARC) 264.25p -1.40%Investec (INVP) 506.50p -1.36%Cobham (COB) 196.60p -1.35%Tesco (TSCO) 421.40p -1.29%Man Group (EMG) 275.60p -1.25%Sage Group (SGE) 277.20p -0.93%Reed Elsevier (REL) 520.00p -0.86%FTSE 250 - RisersDe La Rue (DLAR) 767.00p +18.46%Punch Taverns (PUB) 69.50p +7.01%ITE Group (ITE) 222.70p +5.80%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 397.00p +4.47%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 48.75p +3.94%Bodycote (BOY) 279.40p +3.83%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 27.38p +3.71%International Personal Finance (IPF) 331.80p +3.69%Sports Direct International (SPD) 140.00p +3.17%Inchcape (INCH) 355.60p +2.57%FTSE 250 - FallersITV (ITV) 68.95p -2.48%Laird (LRD) 154.10p -2.47%Ocado Group (OCDO) 166.60p -2.00%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 527.00p -1.59%PartyGaming (PRTY) 253.60p -1.55%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 336.20p -1.41%Rotork (ROR) 1,702.00p -1.39%Spectris (SXS) 1,190.00p -1.33%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 394.60p -1.30%Sportingbet (SBT) 62.25p -1.19%