Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna

FTSE soars 3.5 pct on hopes for hefty US rate cut


Alliance &Leicester leapt 8.4 percent, Standard Chartered added 7.5 percent and HSBC rose 7.2 percent. AstraZeneca sharesgained 2.4 percent and GlaxoSmithKline rose 3.7 percent. Aviva was up 6.8 percentand Prudential rose 6.3 percent. Citi said in a note that the slide in Man Group sharespresented a buying opportunity. Drugmaker Shire rose more than 6 percent after UBSissued a report saying AstraZeneca can afford to pay1,425 pence per share for Shire. Europe's biggest travel firm TUI Travel added 7.5percent after it said its key summer holiday bookings remainedstrong across the group and it was on track to hit 2008 profitforecasts and merger cost-saving targets. Legal & General reversed earlier falls, ending 3percent higher despite saying its 2007 profit fell 26 percent,missing analysts' expectations after making a 269 million poundcharge to account for Britons living longer. MAN SOARS Hedge fund Man Group surged 9 percent, reboundingfrom a 10 percent drop in the previous session when its18.6-percent-held affiliate MF Global dived more than 60percent on speculation the broker of exchange-listed futures andoptions may have liquidity problems. Mining shares also forged higher, supported by strongercopper prices. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Rio Tinto added 4.2 percent, supported bynews that Chinalco, the Chinese metals company that led astunning $14 billion investment in Rio, can raise its stake inthe global mining firm and has no intention of cutting back onits ambitions elsewhere. Seven of the 20 Wall Street firms which do business directlywith the Fed predict the central bank will lower rates a fullpoint to 2.00 percent, which will be the steepest Fed cut inmore than 25 years. Shire has risen sharply in the past two sessions on markettalk of a possible bid from Pfizer . The FTSE 100 leading share index ended up 191.4points at 5,605.8. The index sank 3.9 percent on Monday, hittingits lowest closing level since late 2005, as the fire sale ofU.S. UK banks, which took a whipping the previous day, all roseand together added 59 points to the FTSE 100. Wall Street also staged a stellar rally, with shares inGoldman and Lehman leading a rebound in financialstocks.