UK Shares Rally; Cadbury Rejects Kraft Bid

Mayank Mehta
09 Nov, 2009
New York City

UK stocks rallied after markets around the world and commodities prices gained. The statement from the G-20 nations reassured investors that the current economic stimulus will stay in place. Cadbury Plc rejected unsolicited Kraft Foods bid that valued the company at

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks rallied after markets around the world and commodities prices gained. The statement from the G-20 nations reassured investors that the current economic stimulus will stay in place. Cadbury Plc rejected unsolicited Kraft bid that valued the company at £9.8 billon.[/R]

UK stocks closed higher after Group of 20 nations left economic stimulus in place and showed no urgency to cut the government supported financial spending. The dollar fell after the meeting in Scotland and the markets in Europe, Asia and emerging national rallied.

Cadbury Plc rejected unsolicited offer from Kraft that was not revised after first disclosed nearly two months ago. Kraft offered 300 pence cash and 0.2589 new Kraft shares and valued Cadbury at 717 pence a share or £9.8 billon.

Cadbury closed up 0.4% to 761 pence.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 88.68 or 1.7% to 5,231.40 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.677 and edged lower to close at €1.119.

London Stock Exchange Group reported “technical issue” in its trading system that affected trading in nearly 10% of stocks.

Gainers & Losers

Anglo American plc advanced 3.3% to 2,467.00 pence after the mining giant announced the appointment Philip Hampton to its board as a non-executive director, with immediate effect.

Avanti Communications Group Plc rose 3.8% to 405.00 pence and the company said it won three contracts.

Carr’s Milling Industries PLC closed unchanged at 445.00 pence after the agriculture and engineering firm said full-year pre-tax profit declined 45% to £7.0 million from £12.9 million a year ago.

COE Group PLC the CCTV developer and supplier surged 16.2% to 8.86 pence.

Costain Group PLC rose 7.4% to 28.75 pence after the engineering group in joint venture with Lafarge of France for a project by the Highways Agency in the Midlands area up to a total framework of £250 million over two years.

Dignity plc the acquisitive funeral services provider rose 0.8% to 607.00 pence.

Hiscox Ltd climbed 3.2% to 338.80 pence after the insurer said first nine months premium income rose 31.7% to £1,212.2 million from £920.1 million a year ago.

Inmarsat Plc added 3.2% to 614.00 pence after the satellite operator said third quarter revenue rose 8.7% to £176.7 million from £162.5 million a year ago.

IMI plc surged 11.1% to 511.00 pence after the engineering contractor after it indicated that recent cost cutting is delivering profit as expected earlier and guided selling price “downward pressure” on a number of larger oil and gas projects.

JKX Oil & Gas plc increased 4.5% to 292.70 pence after the oil and gas exploration and production said in Ukraine, average production in the third quarter was 13,256 boepd comprising 48 MMcfd of gas and 5,198 bpd of oil and condensate, a 30% increase on the average for the first half of the year.

Kier Group plc climbed 1.1% to 1,040.00 pence.

Latchways plc rose 3.3% to 671.75 pence.

Lok''n Store Group Plc the storage firm surged 12.8% to 71.65 pence.

PartyGaming plc increased 3.4% to 237.70 pence after the online poker completed the acquisition all of the assets of WPT Enterprises Inc. for a cash consideration of $12.3 million plus an additional minimum aggregate payment of $3 million over the next three years relating to an ongoing revenue share agreement.

Rotork plc the specialist engineering company fell 1.0% to 1,189.00 pence.

Salamander Energy plc rose 2.5% to 268.60 pence.

Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc increased 2.4% to 1,141.00 pence.

Synairgen plc surged 75.4% to 51.76 pence after the respiratory disease drug developer announces that, as part of its development program for inhaled interferon beta in asthma and COPD, laboratory experiments have been completed which confirm the antiviral potency of IFN-beta against 2009 H1N1.

Victoria plc closed unchanged at 205.00 pence after the carpet and floor coverings maker said first-half group revenue declined 7.8% to £32.71 million to £30.17 million a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 87 increased, 14 declined and 1 were unchanged.

G4S Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 1.11% followed by losses in Cable & Wireless Plc of 0.94%, in Next Plc of 0.76%, in Segro Plc of 0.38%, in British American Tobacco Plc of 0.36%.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 6.75% followed by increase in Kazakhmys Plc of 6.35%, in Vedanta Resources Plc of 5.17%, in Rio Tinto Plc of 5.11%, in Xstrata Plc of 5.04%.