Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its 'sell' rating on Royal Mail, and cut its target price from 500p to 480p, pushing the stock into the bottom spot.Engineering group Weir fell after announcing it has dropped its pursuit to merge with Metso after continued rejections from the board of the Finnish rival.On May 20th, Weir sweetened its offer under which Metso shareholder would have received 0.95 Weir shares per Metso share, a 13% increase to the 0.84 exchange ratio initially proposed in April.GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was also in the red after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened a criminal investigation into the "commercial practices" of the pharmaceutical group. The UK fraud body called on whistleblowers to come forward with any information. "We welcome approaches from anyone with inside information on all our cases including this one," it said.While details regarding this particular case are not yet known, the news will come as a further blow to shareholders after a wave of allegations against the company relating to international bribery.Marks & Spencer dropped after going ex-dividend. Meanwhile, Smith & Nephew shares surged this afternoon on the back of reports that US medical device manufacturer Stryker is readying a takeover offer for its UK rival.According to the Financial Times which cited people close to the matter, Stryker has hired banks and is working on the funding for a possible bid for the wound management, endoscopy and orthopaedics group.Stock exchange operator LSE was also in demand after Credit Suisse said it expects a re-rating of the stock over time if the possible acquisition of Russell Investments is completed. The bank added LSE to its 'Focus List' and kept an 'outperform' rating. Banking stocks were mostly higher with Royal Bank of Scotland lifted by reports that it is set to push through job cuts at its US mortgage business as the lender trims costs to avoid regulatory pressure from the Federal Reserve. Lloyds was extending gains made yesterday when it announced its intention to float its TSB division.FTSE 100 - RisersSmith & Nephew (SN.) 978.00p +2.62%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,952.00p +2.41%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 369.10p +2.22%ITV (ITV) 184.80p +1.71%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,210.00p +1.68%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,014.00p +1.60%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,414.00p +1.58%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 629.40p +1.32%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 481.60p +1.20%Experian (EXPN) 1,035.00p +1.17%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Mail (RMG) 518.00p -2.36%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,547.00p -2.19%Anglo American (AAL) 1,529.00p -1.80%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,191.00p -1.39%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,921.00p -1.36%Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,704.00p -1.16%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 445.50p -1.15%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 335.10p -1.15%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,617.50p -1.04%Carnival (CCL) 2,393.00p -0.99%NR