Weir Group rose 3.5 percent to 18 pounds, building on a 2.8 percent gain on Thursday, with several media outlets including the Daily Mail and the Telegraph attributing Thursday's move to bid speculation. The Mail added that a private equity consortium might be preparing a 25 pound ($38) break-up offer.

A Weir Group spokesman declined to comment on the market speculation.

($1 = 0.6568 pounds)

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Atul Prakash)