A possible breakthrough in talks over Greece’s debt crisis sent markets across Europe soaring.
Footsie jumped 90 points to 6,800 as conciliatory noises coming out of Greece seemed to get a warm response among European Union hawks.
Proposals included tax rises and spending cuts, actions that Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras had previously refused to countenance.
The country has until the end of the month to pay €1.6bn to the IMF or face default.
Most shares were buoyed by the news with the exception of gold miner Randgold Resources (LON:RRS), which fell 74p to 4,424p as some of the Greece default possibility went out of the gold price.
Meanwhile, BSkyB (LON:BSY) was one of the best risers with reports at the weekend that the Murdochs have rejected two approaches for their 39% stake from Vivendi and Vodafone (LON:VOD).
Canal+ owner Vivendi was interested in acquiring Sky, but the Murdochs reportedly want £18 per share, a more than 70% premium to Friday’s closing price.
The news led to speculation that the Murdochs have not fully given up their ambitions to take over the satellite broadcaster. Shares added 40p to 1,078p with talk of an £18 per share offer.
One bid that did materialise this morning was Ferrero’s mandatory bid for chocolate retailer Thorntons (LON:THT) of 145p per share, a 35% premium to last week. Shares in Thorntons jumped 43% to 144p on the news.
In broker news, P&O cruise owner Carnival (LON:CCL) led the risers on the FTSE 100 following an upgrade by Deutsche Bank.
Analyst Richard Carter said he expected Carnival’s second quarter earnings to be above the upper end of its guidance.
The broker upgraded its rating on the stock to a ‘buy’ and lifted its target price to 3,525p up from 3400p. Shares climbed 4.2% to 3,302p.
Elsewhere, Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) was a stand out among the small caps as it took the seemingly sensible decision to develop its mineral sands operation jointly with Rio Tinto.
Savannah’s Jangamo prospect in Mozambique is next door to Rio Tinto’s sites and it will be the operator of a project containing all three licences. Shares jumped 83% to 3.8p.
In other small cap news, self-styled full service innovation provider Imaginatik (LON:IMTK) was 37% higher to 7.88p on reports that Rob Quindell, through his Quob Park Estates had been buying shares in the company.
Imaginatik said today, however, that, while it was aware of reports that Quob Park Estates has been buying shares in the company, it has had no contact with the company.
Meanwhile, beleaguered gas explorer Afren (LON:AFR) was another 10% lower today to 1.5p after the company released a prospectus after the close of trading on Friday relating to its proposed restructuring and refinancing.
It intends to issue US$369mln of high yield notes, convert around US$234mln of existing notes and issue about US$75mln of new shares at a penny each.