Northumbrian Water leads London on possible bid

European equities markets were higher Monday as banks and miners saw gains.

The FTSE 100 added 1.14 percent to 5,247.41 in London, while the FTSE 250 gained 0.81 percent to 8,312.11.

Northumbrian Water Group (LSE: NWG) had the best day in London, adding 11.76 percent and leading the 250 on a media report that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in Canada could be interested in bidding up to £1.7 billion ($2.7 billion) for the utility.

The pension plan already owns 27 percent of the water utility.

Other utilities also gained on the news, as United Utilities (LSE: UU) gained 2.8 percent and Severn Trent was up 4 percent.

Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) led the mining sector as it added 5.19 percent on a separate media report that it is thinking about ridding itself of some of its units through share sales, while elsewhere in the sector Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) was up 5.09 percent, Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) gained 5.04 percent, and Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) was 4.24 percent higher.

Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) led banks higher as it turned in the best performance of the day on the 100 with a gain of 7.93 percent, followed by Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC), which added 4.31 percent.

Assets manager Schroders topped the losers list on the 100 as its voting shares (LSE: SDR) fell 2.81 percent and its non-voting shares (LSE: SDRt) were 1.5 percent lower on the session.

Oil and gas construction group Lamprell (LSE: LAM) dropped 3.69 percent to lead decliners on the 250 as it turned in the worst perfomrance of the day in London.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.53 percent to 1,017.3 while the IBEX added 0.43 percent to 10,995.2, the CAC-40 was 0.6 percent higher to 3,762.01 and the Dax gained 0.81 percent to 5,645.48.

Most Asia-Pacific markets were lower as worries continue about China’s monetary policy.

The Nikkei 225 managed to add 0.07 percent to 10,205.02 in Tokyo, but the Topix index was down 0.28 percent to 898.61 and the Mothers market fell 0.78 percent to 409.46.

Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203) continued to decline on fallout from its recall of up to 4.2 million cars due to gas pedals that could get stuck.

The auto giant dropped 1.2 percent despite its announcement that parts to repair the problem should begin to arrive at dealerships by the end of the week so that they can begin to repair the faulty cars.

Toyota also said it will suspend manufacture of eight affected models sold in the US until 8 February.

Honda Motor (TYO: 7267) was down 2.5 percent after it also issued a recall on 646,000 vehicles, mostly in North America and the UK, due to power windows that don’t function correctly.

Other decliners in the region included India’s Sensex, which was down a bare 0.01 percent to 16,356.03, while the Straits Times Index was 0.33 percent lower to 2,736.03.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 1 percent to 4,524.1 in Australia, while the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 1.13 percent to 4,544.8.

Taiwan’s Taiex was down 1.52 percent to 7,524.67 and the Shanghai Composite was 1.6 percent lower to 2,941.36.

In South Korea, the Kospi added 0.25 percent to 1,606.44, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.61 percent to 20,243.75.

At nearly 1 p.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.86 percent higher to 10,153.86 while the S&P 100 had added 1.01 percent to 1,084.68 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.58 percent to 2,159.89.

Prices for crude oil and metals were up in New York trade at midday.

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