UK equities up on media deals

Equities markets in London were up on Wednesday on a volume of 2.8 billion shares traded, with the FTSE 100 going above 5000 for the first time since March 15.

There was a great deal of activity in the media sector. Scottish Radio Holdings gained 14.6 percent to £10 after it rejected an offer of £10.40 per share from Emap for the 72.9 percent of SRH shares that Emap does not own. SRH felt that the offer undervalued its core radio operation.

T & F Informa, a business and academic publisher, announced that it plans to buy IIR Holdings, a privately held US training and events organizer, for £768 million. That news sent shares in T & F Informa up 6.4 percent to 434p.

Media and market research group Aegis was up 0.5 percent to 98p an its announcement that it is acquiring Polish interactive agency HYPERmedia and ARTeam, a French market research group.

Not all was positive however. Satellite television broadcaster BSkyB saw its shares lose 1.8 percent to sit at 535 ½p after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on its belief that BSkyB will not meet its goal of 10 million subscribers by 2010.

The FTSE 100 rose 1 percent to 5,011.0, and the FTSE 250 was up by 0.5 percent to 7,148.2.

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