HSBC 'not in talks to buy UBS'

Zurich/London: HSBC is not in talks to buy UBS, a person familiar with the matter said after renewed speculation about interest from Europe's largest bank lifted the Swiss bank's shares more than 5 per cent on Thursday.

There has been frequent talk that Britain's HSBC is interested in UBS, which is the world's largest wealth manager but has lost billions of dollars from its exposure to US subprime mortgage related assets.

Speculation of a possible merger with direct rival Credit Suisse has also been doing the rounds in the market and it fuelled a rally last week.

Shares in UBS were up 4.98 per cent at 21.08 Swiss francs at 1200 GMT, making it one of the best performing stocks among Eur-opean banks and outperforming a 1.08 rise in the DJ Stoxx index of European lenders.

HSBC shares were up 0.32 per cent at 868.25 pence. "There's a rumour of HSBC for UBS again, unconfirmed," said one trader earlier on Thursday.

But the person familiar with the matter said HSBC was not in talks with its Swiss peer about a deal.

UBS and HSBC declined to comment. HSBC executives have said they will target deals and growth plans on emerging markets, playing down the prospect of big deals in the United States or Europe.