It's been a good day for transport groups National Express and Arriva. The OFT has cleared the award of the east coast rail franchise to National Express, as well as Arriva's acquisition of the cross country franchise.
On top of that, Arriva has just added to its coach operations with a £10.3m, 45p a share agreed offer for Tellings Golden Miller. Tellings provides passenger transport services for airlines at Heathrow, as well as a private hire business throughout the country.
Arriva accelerated 26p to 795p, Tellings rose 10p to 40.5p and National Express was 76p better at £12.28.
Elsewhere the market ended in positive territory, but volumes were nothing to write home about as traders wound down ahead of the Christmas break. The FTSE 100 closed 61.1 points higher at 6345.6, excited by a bit of bid speculation in platinum specialist Johnson Matthey. The company jumped 93p to £18.36 after reports Dow Chemicals might be interested in bidding. Belgium's Umicore climbed 10% for a similar reason.
