Mixed day in London markets

The London equities markets were mixed on Monday, as the FTSE 100 added 0.7 percent to 6,067.0 but the FTSE 250 declined by 0.4 percent to 9,878.9.

Miners once again were among the gainers on the day. Antofagasta was up 3.4 percent to £23.39, while Kazakhmys and Anglo American each gained 2.9 percent, to £12.35 and £24.05 respectively.

In the advertising sector, WPP added 2.7 percent to 690½p on positive comments from both Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.

Media companies were also up on the day. Pearson, which owns the Financial Times, gained 2.4 percent to 781p. EMI added 2.8 percent to 257p as talk circulated that it might merge with US company Warner Music Group.

Rising crude oil prices sent BP up 1.8 percent to 693½p as traders predicted that shares in the company could go as high as 720p.

In the telecommunications sector, Vodafone gained 0.4 percent as it was rumored that Verizon, Telefonica of Spain, and the Blackstone private equity group could bid for the company.

On the other hand, word that GlaxoSmithKline will not be bought by Serono brought a gain of 1.2 percent to the largest pharmaceuticals company in Europe, bringing its share price to £14.94. Also helping GSK was an upgrade to “outperform” from Sanford C. Bernstein on the hope that it will have developed a H5N1 flu vaccine by early next year.

Losers on the day included hotels company De Vere, which lost 1.8 percent to 800p. Northern Foods declined by 3.3 percent to 95¼p on worries that bird flu concerns would impact its poultry business. Among chipmakers, Wolfson Microelectronics dropped 6.5 percent to 443p on a downgrade from Goldman Sachs.

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