Demand from tracker funds helped drive Barclays to the top of the leaderboard on Thursday as the London market made ground.
Hopes for network deal
lifts InmarsatInmarsat, the satellite operator and long-term bid target for Harbinger Capital, gained 3.1 per cent to 537½p on hopes it would secure backing for a European mobile network.
The group has been looking for partners on the venture and needs to decide whether to take up a European spectrum licence by Saturday, Merrill Lynch said. It valued a potential joint venture at about 57p per Inmarsat share.
Barclays jumped ahead of a reweighting of FTSE indices, which will take effect on Friday. The rebalancing will take into account the 1.3bn shares sold this month by the Abu Dhabi state.
