Motive Television Plc Share News (MTV)

The FTSE 100 index hit a 52-week high in the morning session as the pre-Christmas advance continued.Bank of England policymakers voted unanimously to keep interest rates at 0.5% and their programme of quantitative easing (QE) at £200bn when they met earlier this month, it emerged today.Mining giant Rio Tinto has accepted a $2.025bn offer for its Alcan Packaging pharmaceutical, tobacco and food divisions from the packaging group Amcor as it continues its programme of asset sales to ease its debt pile.Also in mining, Minera Penmont, the joint venture 56% owned by silver miner Fresnillo, has made a bid to snatch Canadian mining company Canplats Resources from bullion producer Goldcorp.Minera is offering C$4.20 in cash plus one share, with a notional value of C$0.20, in a new exploration company for every Canplats share. The offer terms trump those offer by Goldcorp, the world's second largest bullion producer. Goldcorp launched an offer in November worth C$238m. British Gas owner Centrica has agreed to sell a 50% equity stake in its 270 megawatt Lincs offshore wind farm for £50m in cash.Tullow Oil has firmed its view on the potential of the West Cape Three Points block, offshore Ghana, after it latest test drill. The Mahogany Deep-2 well, drilled 3 km from Mahogany-3, was the furthest down-dip Jubilee well in the West Cape Three Points licence, Tullow said.Support services contracting firm Balfour Beatty has won a facilities management contract from defence technology outfit QinetiQ. The seven year contract has a base-line value of £15m per annum, and will be supplemented with additional fees for non-core services.A bid battle could still be on the cards for care home group Supporta after its main shareholder suggested it should consider a possible cash offer from a third party rather than an agreed all-share deal with Mears.One takeover that does look done and dusted is the takeover of live music group MAMA by CD and DVD retailer HMV. The two companies have agreed on an acquisition worth £46m or 5.4p a share. Finance consultancy SMS Finance recently made a 4.75p a share offer for MAMA.Africa-focused diamond producer Pangea DiamondFields has completed an upgrade of processing facilities at its Cassanguidi project in Angola but lowered its production targets. It now expects to produce 6,000 carats a month in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a previous estimate of 8,000 tonnes.Shares in digital terrestrial television technology company Motive Television slumped after the company said the sale of its remaining production assets is taking longer than expected, and now won't be completed until the new year.FTSE 100 - RisersEurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 896.50p +3.28%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,278.00p +2.57%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,016.00p +2.49%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,580.50p +2.17%Barclays (BARC) 278.20p +2.11%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,282.00p +2.05%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 717.30p +2.02%Schroders (SDR) 1,320.00p +2.01%Schroders NV (SDRC) 1,054.00p +1.93%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,497.00p +1.88%FTSE 100 - FallersBT Group (BT.A) 138.10p -2.61%United Utilities Group (UU.) 494.50p -1.59%International Power (IPR) 303.80p -1.24%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,073.00p -1.11%Liberty International (LII) 490.40p -1.05%Cairn Energy (CNE) 335.90p -0.91%Home Retail Group (HOME) 282.90p -0.70%G4S (GFS) 261.80p -0.65%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 227.80p -0.48%Inmarsat (ISAT) 678.50p -0.44%