Sainsbury makes FTSE investors better

The FTSE 100 index closed up 32 points or 0.4% to just under 6,462 points, led by Sainsbury, after around 249m shares were apparently bought pre-trading compared with a total of 20m shares yesterday. At the same time, it has emerged Royal Bank of Scotland has submitted a counter-bid for ABN Amro worth £49bn, knocking its share price down 15p or 0.75% to £19.98 but raising Barclays’ share value by 11.5p or 1.6% to 724p as this beats its bid of £45bn and rival HBOS has seen its price earn 37p or 3.5% to £10.94. Elsewhere, mining giant BHP Billiton saw its share value rise 19p or 1.67% to ...