London, England, July 3, 2006--Volume was were heavy in flooring specialist Topps Tiles as hopes of a bid for the group flared up, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The shares rose 8 to 222p as 2.3m shares changed hands against a normal daily volume of nearer 800,000 a day.
Dealers are hoping that the group could be a takeover target, possibly for a private equity bidder. They speculated that an initial bid could be pitched at around 260p a share, valuing the group at almost pounds 590m.
Also in the home floorings sector, Carpetright was better, improving 36p to pounds 12.68. KBC Peel Hunt published a note on the stock, noting it is the dominant carpet retailer in the UK with around 28pc market share and has the potential to increase this share to 33.3pc in the next three years.
The broker said: "Europe is nascent but growing fast with the opportunity to expand significantly in existing and new territories. Gross and net margin should improve as a result of buying power and operational gearing. Near term, however, the shares are at risk of underperforming if the equity markets recover.''
Gains by Topps Tiles and Carpetright helped the FTSE 250 surge 119.2 to 9422.7, while the FTSE 100 rallied 41.9 to a six-week high of 5833.4. The blue-chip index has rallied 141.3 points over the past five days, while the FTSE 250 has climbed 227.5 points this week.
