– The FTSE 100 jumped 112.72 points to 6,723.17.
– The FTSE 250 climbed 185.57 points to 17,890.56.
– The FTSE All Share rallied by 56.31 points to 3,716.37.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished 1.90 points higher at 769.83.
Despite Friday’s fresh round of emergency funds, a true plan to resolve the Greek debt crisis has not yet been agreed. Today’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers ended after just over an hour. The latest set of proposals will now be looked over in detail by creditor nations with the aim of finalising an agreement later this week. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande tonight.
Tullow Oil (TLW) saw its shares rise by 4.8p to 366.2p after it settled a long-running capital gains dispute with the government of Uganda. Tullow will pay $250 million (£158 million) as a full and final resolution, of which $144 million (£91 million) has already been transferred. Analysts greeted the news as positive, with JP Morgan Cazenove commenting that “given the liability reduction and implied project de-risking, we expect Tullow shares to outperform today, and look for further updates on the Uganda-Kenya pipeline in the coming weeks.”
Capita (CPI) has been named by NHS England as the preferred bidder for a four year administrative support framework worth £1 billion. Shares in the company rose by 30p to 1,262p after the announcement.
Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets said it retains confidence in its full year targets for Aggreko (AGK) despite a management reshuffle. The bank wrote that “there are a lot of moving parts at the moment – however we still think risk/reward is in favour, especially for those that can take a longer term view. We would also point out the short interest remains around 10%”. Aggreko climbed 22p to 1,488p.
Severn Trent (SVT) shares rallied 5.89% to 2,176p after reports that Canadian infrastructure outfit Borealis would be mounting another bid for the business. Borealis last made a bid two years ago which was rejected as undervaluing the company. Brokers suggested that a deal was more likely to take place now due to a rash of recent activity in the sector including Pennon’s purchase of Bournemouth Water at a 26% premium.
Investment manager Polar Capital (POLR) saw its pre-tax profits drop by 5.2% during the year ended 31st March to £31.1 million. Assets under management were also down by 6.8% over the period. Shares in the firm rose by 3p to 449.5p.
Shares in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) grew by 20p to 1,377p after it sold its meningitis vaccines to Pfizer Ireland for €115 million (£101 million) as part of its agreement with EU regulators regarding its recent Novartis deal. GSK agreed to divest certain legacy products and the sale of the two vaccines is expected to be formally completed by the end of the year.
Tomorrow’s news today
Immunodiagnostic Systems (IDH), Hayward Tylor (HAYT) and Syqic (SYQ) are among the firms announcing final results tomorrow morning.
The CBI industrial trends survey will also be published.
Quote of the day
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
– Bill Gates