Extraordinary items - LSE funds go for brokers.

The London Stock Exchange is doing a Robin Hood act in reverse: taking from the rich and giving to the even richer. City weekly Financial News says the Exchange is thought to have paid #15m in fees to Cazenove and other advisers who helped defend it against OM Group.

The next big question is, where exactly will the temple of capitalism move to in 2004? New offices being built in Paternoster Square – directly opposite Wren’s temple, St Paul’s Cathedral – now seem likely to be the exchange’s new home. But there was a brief flurry of speculation that the 200-year-old institution might abandon the Square Mile and head east to Canary Wharf. Doubtless the gossip helped strengthen the hand of the cost-conscious Furse in negotiations with the City fathers.