Market Report: Shares jump for Intellectual property specialist IP Group

Intellectual property specialist IP Group cleaned up yesterday on news of a new laundry invention.

The FTSE 250 listed IP Group has a 14.6 per cent stake in Xeros, which has developed a patented polymer bead cleaning system and is targeting the commercial laundry market in the US, UK, Europe and China. Created in 2006 after research at Leeds University, Xeros plans to raise more cash and float on Aim next month. It has raised in excess for £15m from the likes of Entrepreneurs Fund and Invesco. IP, whose spin-off Actual Experience listed on Aim last week, was ahead 7.9p to 222p.

The FTSE 100 ticked up 25.07 points to 6,838.06, 100 points away from the all-time high.

Renewed chat of M&A activity helped lift Vodafone. The sale of its stake in US mobiles joint venture Verizon Wireless, which completed yesterday, could be the catalyst for interest to re-emerge from AT&T, scribblers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS speculated, even after the US group denied it was in talks last month.

Vodafone dialled up a 6.9p gain to 236.5p, top of the table. Spreadbetter ETX Capital expects a rush into equities when shareholders of Vodafone spend the cash released from its £130bn Verizon stake sale.

Engineer IMI lost 39p to 1526p after a note from analysts at Exane BNP Paribas downgraded it to underperform and warned its new chief executive Mark Selway will struggle to increase sales without putting pressure on margins.

AIM-listed Churchill Mining said it has finally been given a date for a ruling on its international arbitration claim against the Republic of Indonesia. It was set for Monday when it will suspend shares. The thermal coal producer warmed up 4.25p to 29.5p.

SkyePharma jumped 10p to 194p when the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a positive opinion for its Ellipta inhaler technology, which will be used in GlaxoSmithKline’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment Anoro.

A Trinidad operations update for Range Resources helped it spurt 0.08p to 1.04p.