** Vodafone rises as much as 4 pct on speculation comay merge with Liberty Global, before falling to tradedown 2.2 pct after VOD rules out full combination
** Bloomberg reported after the close on Thursday two coswere exploring a merger
** Statement from the company confirms it is in discussionswith Liberty Global but not regarding a combination of the twocompanies, leading to disappointment amongtraders
** Analysts at Berenberg say a full combination would haveprovided synergies of 30-40p per share to VOD; a smaller scaleasset swap likely to provide 1/3 to 1/2 that figure
** Shares move from top risers to top fallers on FTSE 100, most traded by average volumes
(RM: alasdair.pal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)