Footsie makes bright start to week

Insurers helped propel the London market higher today after a financier confirmed he was looking at bidding for Royal & Sun Alliance.

R&SA was the second highest top-flight climber after Andrew Regan confirmed the group was on a list of acquisition targets.

Shares moved 1.25p higher to 82.75p, helping the FTSE 100 Index add 8.6 points to 5039 by mid-morning.

Upbeat results from a number of US blue chips including General Motors and chip maker Intel after the end of trading in New York on Friday were also having a positive impact.

Back in London, the focus on R&SA spread to the rest of the sector, with insurer Old Mutual cheering 1.25p to 118.25p and Legal & General 0.75p higher at 109.75p.

But telecoms firms were heading in the opposite direction. Cable & Wireless was the second heaviest faller, off 2p to 139.5p, and was followed on the way down by O2, which weakened 1.5p to 125.25p.

On a relatively quiet day for corporate news, aerospace group Rolls-Royce was another climber after revealing it had won an 800 million US dollars (£443.4m) jet engine deal from Air China. The stock advanced 1% or 3.25p to 290p.

Elsewhere, shares in Majestic Wine fizzed 5% or 12.5p to 260p after it unveiled a 24% hike in annual profits and sounded an upbeat note about its prospects.

UK Coal advanced 4% or 5p to 127.5p after confirming it believed a venture capital firm was linked to a recent takeover approach for the group. The UK’s biggest coal producer said it though Alchemy was linked to the failed approach by a private property firm.

Nightclub operator Luminar was also up 0.5p at 543.5p after announcing the sale of the majority of its unbranded nightclubs to a management buyout team.