Morrisons shares rise on takeover chatter

[December 11, 2018]  LONDON (Reuters) - WM Morrisons <MRW.L> shares jumped on Tuesday as traders cited market rumors that the UK supermarket chain could be subject to a takeover approach by U.S. online retail giant Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>.

They rose as much as 2.9 percent in midday trade and were up 1.9 percent by 1215 GMT, outperforming their UK peers. The FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was up 1.5 percent.

Chatter about the rumor was mentioned on the Financial Times' Alphaville markets chatroom.

The chatroom moderator said: "There's a mad story going round the traps about Amazon going for Morrison ... Looks to me like wild speculation, but stranger things I guess..."

The supermarket chain has struck wholesale supply deals with Amazon and is widely seen as a potential takeover target for the U.S. company as it moves into bricks-and-mortar retailing after its takeover of Whole Foods.

Morrisons was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Helen Reid, additional reporting by Paul Sandl; Editing by Josephine Mason)

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