THE return of domestic takeover speculation, a spate of encouraging corporate results and another promising showing from the US stock market, saw London's shares race ahead yesterday.

The bid rumours, which had mostly been on the back burner this week, revived yesterday and were focused sharply on Zeneca and Ladbroke.

Activity in the former ballooned with the shares featuring prominently in the Footsie performance, table and the options attracting exceptionally heavy business. Dealers said the market had revived the old story that Roche, the Swiss drugs group, was about to launch an offer for the group, one of the few remaining top quality international drug companies.

The day's other keen takeover story, and one that, like Zeneca, has been around for many months, pointed at Ladbroke, the hotels to betting offices group. Its shares rocketed on revived suggestions that either Bass, one of the Britain's leading brewers, or Hilton International of the US, was about to pounce with an offer.

Other long standing bid stories being revived by hungry stockbrokers yesterday, included Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered. Although the shares were unchanged yesterday, Cable & Wireless remained, dealers said, one of the market's favoured bid candidates after the recent news about the failed attempts at a tie up with BT.

Turnover at 6 p.m. reached 1.05 billion shares, with at least three trading programmes said to have been executed yesterday. Customer business on Wednesday was worth £1.96 billion sterling.