Shares in private hospital group Spire dropped sharply after Mediclinic scrapped a bid for the company.Spire had rejected a revised bid that valued its shares at 315.5p each, saying the offer “undervalued Spire and its prospects”.Shares in the FTSE 250-listed Spire fell 8.4% on the news, while Mediclinic – a FTSE 100 member – dropped 3.1%.After opening lower, the FTSE 100 index recovered as the day progressed.By the end of the day the benchmark share index had gained 8.78 points at 7,389.46.Shares in Thomas Cook rose over 5% following some upbeat broker comment. Panmure raised its rating on the travel company to “hold” from “sell”, while HSBC gave the firm a “buy” rating.On the currency markets, the pound rose 0.2% against the dollar to $1.3240 and was 0.6% higher against the euro at €1.12770.The euro had fallen sharply in early trade after talks on forming a coalition government in Germany collapsed.However, after falling by as much as 0.6% against the dollar, the euro then recovered to stand little changed against the US currency at $1.1785.
Source: BBC News