The London equities exchanges were up on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 seeing a gain of 0.6 percent to 5,328.5 and the FTSE 250 rising by 0.6 as well, to an all-time high of 7,798.5. Trading amounted to a total of 2.9 billion shares.

Part of the gains can be accounted for by a rise of 17.3 percent by logistics group Exel after it confirmed that it had received a bid from Deutsche Post.

At least one analyst anticipated that there would be counter bids for the company, possibly from US company UPS, which has considered bidding for Exel in the past.

Other companies in the transport sector benefited from the speculation, with TDG adding 3.1 percent to 236p and Wincanton gaining 6.2 percent to 288¼p.

Insurers again were down as the damage done by Hurricane Katrina grew more obvious. Wellington Underwriting lost 4.5 percent to 101¾p, Catlin declined by 4.1 percent to 439½p, Amlin was down 2.9 percent to 177p, and Brit Insurance dropped 2.8 percent to 87½p.

On the other hand, companies that stand to benefit from rebuilding after the storm saw their shares gain in value. Aggreko, the temporary power generator, was up by 7.5 percent to 225p and Ashtead gained 7 percent to 130½p. The world’s biggest distributor of plumbing supplies, Wolseley, was up 2.8 percent to £11.59.