By Dominic Lau
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rose
by midday on Wednesday, snapping a five-day losing run, as gains
in potential bid targets Prudential <PRU.L> and Liberty
International <LII.L> offset the drag of companies going
ex-dividend.
By 1136 GMT, the UK blue-chip index was up 43.7 points, or
0.8 percent at 5,811.4, underperforming major European indexes.
The FTSE 100 had fallen by about 5 percent over the previous
five trading days and is down 10 percent for the year on fears
of a U.S. recession and further credit-related writedowns by
financial institutions.
"We had a 300-point fall in five trading sessions. You are
probably looking for bargain hunting at some point when there is
no material change in the economic or corporate backdrop, which
there isn't," said Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG
Index. "Perhaps this is an early sign of that."
Increased hopes of a deal to rescue ailing bond insurer
Ambac Financial Group <ABK.N> pushed the company's shares up and
helped the broader U.S. stock market cut losses on Tuesday.
Also bolstering the insurance sector, Prudential <PRU.L>
climbed 5.6 percent after shareholders in China's Ping An
Insurance <2318.HK> <601318.SS> approved a plan to raise about
$17 billion, prompting fresh speculation it could take a stake
in a European insurer.
Aviva <AV.L> put on 2.9 percent, Old Mutual <OML.L> added
1.9 percent and Legal & General <LGEN.L> advanced 2.8 percent.
Liberty International jumped 5.7 percent after the
Independent newspaper said the property firm was in talks with a
major rival to form the world's largest shopping mall group.
The newspaper said Australia's Westfield Group <WDC.AX> and
Singapore's GIC Real Estate had been mooted as potential
suitors. Liberty International declined to comment.
Peers Hammerson <HMSO.L>, British Land <BLND.L>, and Land
Securities <LAND.L> also rose.
EX-DIVIDEND WEIGHS
Banks were mixed, with Barclays <BARC.L>, Royal Bank of
Scotland <RBS.L> and Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L> all down after going
ex-dividend.
HBOS <HBOS.L>, however, was up 4.5 percent after ABN AMRO
upgraded Britain's biggest mortgage lender to "hold" from
"sell". Within the sector, Alliance & Leicester <ALLL.L> gained
4 percent and HSBC <HSBA.L> rose 2.6 percent.
Investors will get further evidence of the strength of the
U.S. economy at 1500 GMT with January factory orders and
February non-manufacturing data.
Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier <REL.L> advanced 1.6
percent. The Times said private equity group Permira had emerged
as a potential suitor for Reed Business Information, its trade
magazines arm which could soon be for sale for about 1.25
billion pounds.
Hedge fund group Man Group <EMG.L> added 5.1 percent after
it said the net asset value of its main AHL Diversified Futures
fund rose 5.9 percent last week.
British broadcaster ITV <ITV.L> gained 2.1 percent after it
said net advertising revenues for its family of channels was
expected to be up almost 2 percent in the first quarter of 2008,
It also reported 2007 results broadly in line with expectations.
British American Tobacco <BATS.L>, Persimmon <PSN.L>, Diageo
<DGE.L>, Royal & SunAlliance <RSA.L>, TUI Travel and British
Energy <BGY.L> were also down, trading ex-dividend.
(Additional reporting by Rebekah Curtis; Editing by Quentin
Bryar)
