The FTSE 100 held firm at midday but was off highs awaiting direction from Wall Street in extremely quiet pre-bank holiday weekend trade, with solid UK GDP data and talk of possible M&A activity lending support to shares, dealers said. At 12.00 pm, the FTSE 100 index was 19.5 points higher at 5,275.1, with all the broader FTSE indices trading in positive territory. Volume remained thin, with 654 mln shares changing hands in 66,962 deals. Looking ahead to Wall Street's opening, spread-better IG Index was indicating a 7 point gain in the Dow at today's opening bell ahead of the final reading of the August University of Michigan consumer confidence report. Back in London, the office for National Statistics revealed that UK GDP rose by 0.5 from the first quarter, compared with the previous estimate of 0.4 pct. The figure was helped by an upward revision to industrial sector activity. On the corporate front, Hilton shares topped the blue chip leaders board continuing yesterday's rally, gaining 5-3/4 pence to 309-3/4 as analysts made some adjustments to their forecasts in the wake of the leisure groups interim results on Thursday. UBS raised its price target to 355 pence from 340 while Goldman Sachs, which also has a target of 355 pence on the sector, pushed its pretax profit forecasts 2 pct higher to 420.8 mln stg. Meanwhile shares in WPP Group rallied 2-1/2 to 594, rebounding from earlier falls after the world's second largest advertising group's first half figures showed a sharp rise in profits, but which came in below some market forecasts. WPP saw its headline pretax profit before goodwill amortisation rise 32 pct to 254.8 mln stg, from 193.0 mln stg a year earlier. UBS noted that the first half results came in below the consensus analyst forecast of 269 mln stg but believes the transition to the new IFRS accounting rules explains most of the difference between these results and market estimates. Tobacco shares stayed in focus following reports that Japan Tobacco Inc is still keen to make acquisitions in Europe. In an interview with a newswire, Japan Tobacco president and chief executive Katsuhiko Honda said he would not rule out acquisitions or alliances with Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco or Altadis.