Sector movers: Ongoing Morrison buyout rumours drive grocers higher

19th Feb 2014 15:28

The supermarket sector was making decent gains on Wednesday as ongoing buyout speculation drove the share price of UK grocer WM Morrison higher in afternoon trade.The stock was up 4.7% at 243.5p by 15:31, after having hit a 52-week low of 229.9p earlier in the session.Last week it was reported that the founding family of Morrison, which is thought to have a 9.5% stake, had spoken to private-equity firms to gauge their interest in taking the company private.According to Reuters, bankers are working on debt financing packages of around £5bn to back a potential sale.Morrisons is the fourth-largest chain of supermarkets in the UK behind Tesco, Sainsbury and Wal-Mart-owned Asda.Both Tesco and Sainsbury were trading higher this afternoon, up 1.4% and 0.7%, respectively.Top performing sectors so far todayFood & Drug Retailers 4,427.27 +1.79%Forestry & Paper 11,266.84 +1.06%Industrial Transportation 3,402.60 +1.05%Aerospace and Defence 4,851.08 +1.00%Industrial Engineering 10,514.39 +0.66%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,093.27 -4.00%Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 12,608.04 -1.12%Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,766.21 -0.96%Tobacco 35,550.38 -0.92%Household Goods & Home Construction 11,804.53 -0.86%BC