It's stormy out there but the market is so far not replicating the weather, unlike in 1987.
With a bit of bid speculation and broker recommendations, the FTSE 100 has even managed to make it into positive territory, up 14.1 points to 5714.0.
Insurer Friends Provident is leading the way, up nearly 3% to 121.6p. Weekend reports suggested that US private equity group JC Flowers was preparing a £3.5bn bid, once Friends' preliminary results tomorrow were out of the way.
Banking group HSBC added 17.5p to 776p on reports that it wanted to raise its shareholding in China's fifth largest lender, Bank of Communications, above 20% and was applying for government approval for the move. Reports now coming out of China, however, seem to be pouring cold water on the idea.
Meanwhile Imperial Tobacco is 43p higher at £23.87 after it sold its 49.95% stake in Spanish duty free group Aldeasa for €275m in cash. The stake came as part of Imperial's recently completed purchase of Spanish cigarette business Altadis. In a buy note, Deutsche Bank said: "Imperial remains our top European tobacco pick since we believe the market is still not pricing in all the upside of the Altadis acquisition. Newsflow over the next 6-12 months should provide reassurance that the deal and savings targets are on track. Although a number of investors seem to be waiting on the sidelines for the rights issue (likely to be launched around first-half figures on 20 May, we think), we regard this as positive because these marginal buyers could support the stock."
Housebuilders were hit by downbeat comments from Bovis Homes, 7.4% lower, while miners fell back on concerns that a global slowdown would hit demand for metals. BHP Billiton, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto are all around 4% lower.
