The FTSE 100 remained on the front foot, rising 18.64 to 6414.29, having put on around 300 points over the past two-and-a-half weeks.
Drugmakers dominated the blue-chip leaderboard, but there were plenty of movers and shakers on the mid-cap index.
AA raced up 13.8p, or 5%, to 291.7p on reports CVC, the private-equity owner of Formula One, has snapped up Carlyle’s stake in rival car-breakdown service RAC.
Pace accelerated 25.92p, or 6.4%, to 430.32p after the US regulator closed its probe into Arris’s £1.4 billion takeover of the set-top box maker. Only Brazil is left to give the deal the green light.
Over-50s travel and insurance group Saga looked frail, falling 11p to 201.2p after its largest investor slashed its stake. Acromas, which is made up of private-equity groups Charterhouse, CVC, and Permira, along with Saga employees, dumped a 13% stake at 200p a share, leaving it with just under a third of the company.
Moneysupermarket, maker of quirky ads, has been a stock-market success (Picture: YouTube)
YouTube
Moneysupermarket founder Simon Nixon, who brought the company public in 2007, cashed in on the price-comparison site’s stock-market success by selling 32 million shares worth £98 million. Shares tumbled 21.21p to 307.09p.
Softcat edged down 0.85p to 280.9p following its first trading update since floating last month at 240p a share. The software firm said first-quarter revenues were up 14% to £141 million.
On AIM, Renewable Energy Generation rose 3.3p to 57.55p as it revealed the sale of the business to BlackRock for £64.5 million. The company, damaged beyond repair by the scrapping of green-energy subsidies, will be wound up and most of the cash returned to shareholders.
