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(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,920.90 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Standard Chartered was the top performer on the index following a report that First Abu Dhabi Bank is pressing ahead with a potential offer for the bank.
According to Bloomberg, under the code name Silver-Foxtrot, officials at the Abu Dhabi bank are working under the radar on a possible bid once a cooling off period required by UK takeover rules elapses. Sources told Bloomberg that FAB is exploring an all-cash bid of in the range of $30bn to $35bn.
On the downside, shares in Ladbrokes owner Entain tumbled after rumours of a possible takeover were quashed.
Analysts at Jefferies pointed to the fact that on a call for MGM's fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, the company's chief executive officer commented that MGM had "moved on" from Entain.
In a research note, Jefferies reported the CEO as saying: "So I think it's time to be definitive and give a little direction. The simple answer on Entain is no, we've moved on... So, for now, the answer is no, not with Entain, we're going to go down our own direction... We value the relationship within Entain, we value BetMGM. But as it comes to rest of the world, we're going to move forward with a different proposition."
British American Tobacco lost ground as it posted a slight increase in full-year revenues thanks to volume growth and price increases in its New Category unit, but said the macroeconomic outlook was expected to remain challenging.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 761.60p 10.57%
BP (BP.) 542.80p 1.80%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 722.00p 1.63%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,445.00p 1.58%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,666.00p 1.54%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,704.00p 1.45%
Shell (SHEL) 2,477.00p 1.39%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 487.40p 1.25%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,268.00p 1.24%
Schroders (SDR) 500.20p 1.23%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Entain (ENT) 1,378.50p -12.06%
BT Group (BT.A) 133.15p -3.65%
Glencore (GLEN) 528.40p -3.38%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,001.50p -2.90%
SEGRO (SGRO) 845.40p -1.79%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,159.50p -1.44%
WPP (WPP) 1,008.00p -1.32%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,945.00p -1.17%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,286.00p -1.17%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,134.00p -1.13%
