The UK's blue chip stocks index has closed the day up and saw the performance of mining firms and financial services group turn around but the key driver of the day was a major purchase of Sainsbury shares.
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 ...
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