FTSE blue across the board

Sainsbury added 9.5p to 267.75p as investors continued to buy on bid speculation, despite public assurances from controlling Sainsbury family members that the chief executive has their faith and any talk of bids was “silly”. Hays added 3.25p to 119.5p after the recruitment consultant said it would return cash to shareholders after spinning off another non-core business. BHP Billiton added 14p to 567.5p after an Australian competitor in the iron ore business said it saw no slowdown in orders from China despite that country’s first interest rate increase in nearly a decade announced las...