Market report: Friday 13.00

LAKESIDE-to-MetroCentre shopping centre owner

Any bid would be worth more than £5bn, including almost £2bn of debt, but Gordon said he has no intention of selling his shares and may even raise his stake.

Yet, with Gordon due to retire in June, takeover speculation is unlikely to die down. Companies reportedly interested are Australia's Westfield and America's Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties.

Separately, Liberty was today expected to unveil a £600m refinancing of its 1.8m square feet MetroCentre shopping mall in Gateshead, with the help of property lender Eurohypo bank.

Reversing early losses, the FTSE 100 index was up 16.4 points at 4817.7, led by metals and mining stocks.

BHP Billiton was 17p firmer at 620p, Rio Tinto was up 38p at 1553p, Vedanta Resources added 5p to 391½p and Anglo American was 24p higher at 1242p after Deutsche Bank raised price targets on all four.

However, the broker lowered its target on Chilean copper producer Antofagastaand meted out similar treatment to Lonmin, whose margins it sees being hammered by the strong rand. Even so, Antofagasta posted a modest 10p gain to 1105p and Lonmin crept up 2p to 955p.

Shire Pharmaceuticals climbed 10p to 616p on the back of an upgrade from CSFB. Expressing confidence in the management, the broker sees significant upside for the shares, lifting its target to 700p from 575p and raising its rating to outperform from neutral.

Medical devices group Gyrus rose 11½p to 233½p while Huntleigh Technology was up 12½p at 456p after both groups issued upbeat trading statements.

Healthcare and pharmaceuticals products and services group Alliance UniChem, up 5½p at 739p, received a shot in the arm from CSFB, which is retaining its outperform rating and lifting its target to 865p from 726p.

J Sainsbury edged up 1½p to 269½p following yesterday's mixed news - while sales slipped over Christmas, the underperforming company claims it is on the road to recovery. The jury is out on Sainsbury's future but few doubts exist over clear sector leader Tesco, up 3¾p at 318p after US investment bank JP Morgan lifted its target to 350p to 330p in anticipation of strong Christmas sales.

Prepared meals supplier Geest, which counts struggling Marks & Spencer among its customers, added 9½p to 634½p after reporting a solid rise in annual sales.

Taghmen Energy, exploring for oil and gas in Guatemala, made a positive start on its first day's trading on the Alternative Investment Market. The shares listed at 70p and immediately added 2½p.

Shares in cash shell Financial Development Corporation soared 0.75p to 8.62p on news that West African oil minnow FirstAfrica Oil has backed into the company.

There were mixed views on photographic retailer Jessops after it gave a snapshot of Christmas trading. Evolution Beeson Gregory raised its target to 180p from 170p but Seymour Pierce downgraded the stock, off 1¾p at 162p, to outperform from buy.

UBS said it continues to rate British Airways, ahead by 2½p at 249½p, a buy, raising its target to 330p from 300p.