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Knight/Trimark up on buzz
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September 13, 2000: 4:11 p.m. ET
Shares of No. 1 U.S. market maker jumps on takeover speculation
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of Knight/Trimark Group Inc. jumped more than 22 percent Wednesday on speculation that it may be the next market maker to be grabbed up by an investment bank.
Knight/Trimark (NITE: Research, Estimates) rose $6.63 to $36.06 just two days after Goldman Sachs paid $6.65 billion in cash and stock for competitor Spear Leeds & Kellogg LP.
 "This stock is up on potential takeover rumors," said Scott Appleby, analyst with Prudential Securities.
Appleby said the main impetus for the stock's rise today is when Jersey City, N.J.-based Knight/Trimark declined to show up for a Merrill Lynch investor conference, fueling speculation that a big deal is taking up the firm's time.
Knight/Trimark, which is the top U.S. market maker, has a large number of online customers, with a consortium of 27 brokers and dealers owning about a third of the company.
A market maker offers to buy and sell stock for investors and makes a profit on the spread between a stock's asking price and offer price.
According to Appleby, Prudential believes Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MWD: Research, Estimates) and Citibank (C: Research, Estimates) could be involved in a play for Knight/Trimark.
In June, Merrill Lynch (MER: Research, Estimates) bought Herzog Heine, the third-largest U.S. market maker for Nasdaq trading, for $900 million in stock. 
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Knight/Trimark Group
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