The London stock market will be hoping to rise for a third week in a row amid more take-over fever after appearing to shake off the effects of a strong pound.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares finished at 6,486.80 points on Friday, up 46.20 points or 0.72 percent from a week earlier.
The FTSE rallied strongly on Friday, as feverish take-over activity struck the pharmaceutical sectors. It had fallen on Wednesday and Thursday as the pound raced above 2.0 dollars in European trade. A strong pound is seen as harmful to companies whose earnings are mainly in dollars.
The FTSE rebounded Friday, however, led by Europe's biggest pharmacy chain Alliance Boots as a cross-Atlantic bidding war erupted for the British group.
Alliance Boots ended Friday top of the FTSE 100 after surging 7.19 percent to close at 1,125 pence.
US and British private equity groups on Friday, launched rival cash bids approaching 11.0 billion pounds (16.2 billion euros, 22.04 billion dollars).
A take-over backed by either Terra Firma or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) would represent Europe's biggest buyout by a private equity firm.
A consortium headed by British group Terra Firma tabled an indicative bid worth 10.78 billion pounds for British company Alliance Boots. The offer trumped an improved bid by US group KKR, which the Alliance Boots board had accepted earlier Friday.
KKR, which is joined in its take-over by the executive deputy chairman of Alliance Boots, Stefano Pessina, offered 10.6 billion pounds. Boots said on late Friday that, for the time being, it was sticking with the lower bid.
Investors are also keeping a close eye on a European take-over saga involving the banking sector. Dutch bank ABN Amro has extended its exclusive take-over talks with British group Barclays until late Friday.
However a consortium comprising Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander of Spain and Dutch group Fortis are to meet with ABN Amro next Monday to discuss a possible take-over bid of their own.