After Lloyds TSB said this morning it was looking around for acquisition opportunities, Alliance & Leicester is catching the buyers' eyes this afternoon, with shares currently up 5.3%.
Lloyds chairman told reporters alongside the presentation of the bank's strong 2007 results: "We will look around all the time to see if there are opportunities but we're focused on our ability to grow organically."
The "opportunities" line prompted traders to think A&L, and its shares have jumped 25.5p to 505p. It is one of the biggest risers in the FTSE 100, second only to Lloyds - up 25.25p, or 5.8%, at 462p.
The FTSE 100 as a whole is back in negative territory after a brief tiptoe into the black over lunchtime was soon undone by falls on Wall Street. The UK bluechips index is down 56.2 points, or 1%, at 5,876 while the Dow is currently some 68 points lower at 12,216, a fall of 0.6%.
The retailers are dominating the top spots on today's London losers board with Next, Home Retail Group, Marks & Spencer, J Sainsbury and Kingfisher all down more than 3%. Negative broker comment didn't help, with several analysts taking a fresh view on Kingfisher after yesterday's news of falling sales at its B&Q stores.
