Vedanta Resources, the Indian mining group, has become the latest supposed takeover candidate, as traders scrabble for stories in what has so far been a thin day's trading.
The mining sector, of course, is rife with speculation at the moment. Not only are investors trying to spot whether a rival bidder will step into the BHP Billiton/Rio fray, they are also attempting to pick the next possible target. So today it was Vedanta's turn, and its shares rose 100p to £20 on talk that a Chinese state miner might be planning a £27 a share offer.
However, there was also some bearish news for Vedanta, as India's Supreme Court barred the company from mining bauxite in a sacred area of the country. It asked the company to come back with new proposals.
Among the other miners, Anglo American added 4.5% to £29.38 as HSBC upgraded the company from neutral to overweight with a price target of £35.
Ahead of Wall Street's opening after yesterday's Thanksgiving holiday, the FTSE 100 was 54.4 points higher at 6209.9. Dow futures suggest an 80 point rise at the opening, but one trader summed up the mood by saying: "I don't really trust the market totally yet."
Pharmaceuticals were again stronger as traders reported switching into the sector after its poor performance over the past couple of years. GlaxoSmithkline and AstraZeneca were up more than 3% each.
Over at Mike Ashley's always entertaining Sports Direct, shares fell 0.5p to 95.5p as Citigroup - which was one of those banks involved in February's 300p flotation - cut its price target from 160p to 100p.
Lower down the market, carbon credit specialist AgCert International slipped 0.25p to 5p on talk it had started notifying rivals - initially in the US - that they may be infringing its patents. If it fails to reach agreement, it might seek redress in the courts. Analysts at Dawnay, Day Corporate Broking said: "We suspect that this is going to be a costly pursuit in time and money. In the first half, the company reported a net cash balance of €16.84m and a net loss for the period of €28.51m. Estimates for the full year show a widening loss of €32.23m. [This] would suggest that AgCert might not be in the strongest position financially to start initiating a succession of law suits in the US, let alone globally."
No one representing the company has so far been available to comment.
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