FTSE 100 movers: SABMiller cheers market

The FTSE 100 was up 1.2% with the index of leading shares up 75.8 points to 6,212.

The main riser was SABMiller, which surged 21% on after it responded to recent press speculation by confirming that Anheuser-Busch InBev has informed the company that it intends to make an offer.

Reckitt Benckiser got a boost after Exane BNP Paribas upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’ and lifted its price target to 6,600p from 5,800p.

The bank said its ‘underperform’ rating had been based on the belief that Reckitt would struggle to execute material near-term M&A given a dearth of suitable available opportunities.

Aberdeen Asset Management shares were 3.75% higher after news on Tuesday the company had bought London-based specialist investment manager Advance Emerging Capital for an undisclosed sum.

Glencore shares were up 2.6% after the miner said it had raised £1.6bn by placing new shares with institutions and senior management at a small discount in order to pay off some of its debts.

The commodities conglomerate issued 1,307bn shares at a price of 125p, a discount to the closing price on Tuesday of 128.05p.

Among the fallers were Mondi, down 4.33% after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to ‘sell’.

Aviva fell 1.8% after it emerged this week that 700 Royal Automobile Club workers have been paid the wrong pension for years because of a calculation error caused by the insurer.

FTSE 100 - Risers

SABMiller (SAB) 3,635.00p +20.58%

Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 332.30p +3.75%

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,863.00p +3.06%

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,224.00p +3.03%

Glencore (GLEN) 131.45p +2.66%

Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,127.00p +2.36%

Unilever (ULVR) 2,638.00p +2.29%

Diageo (DGE) 1,784.50p +2.26%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,549.50p +2.22%

Carnival (CCL) 3,487.00p +2.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Mondi (MNDI) 1,414.00p -4.33%

Aviva (AV.) 465.90p -1.77%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 600.00p -0.91%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,449.00p -0.89%

Inmarsat (ISAT) 1,013.00p -0.78%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,370.50p -0.75%

BAE Systems (BA.) 450.10p -0.73%

CRH (CRH) 1,902.00p -0.57%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 719.00p -0.55%

Royal Mail (RMG) 467.50p -0.38%