London, Aug 28 - Shares in J. Sainsbury Plc jumped more than 8 percent as traders cited renewed talk of a bid for Britain's third largest supermarket chain.
"There is a rumour of a 500 pence (per share) bid on Sainsbury," a trader said on Thursday, but he had no other information on the potential bidder.
At 500p a share, Sainsbury would have a market value of around 8.85 billion pounds ($16.3 billion).
Sainsbury said it could not comment on the talk.
"We can't comment on market rumour or speculation," a spokeswoman for the company said.
Last November, Sainsbury became one of the largest buyout casualties of the credit crisis when Qatari fund Delta Two ditched plans for a 10.6 billion pound bid for the grocer.
The fund blamed worsening credit markets and the cost of winning support from the firm's pension trustees for the failure of the deal.
Shares in the company were up 7.8 percent at 343-1/2 pence at 1455 GMT, having earlier hit a high of 346-3/4p.