Amid the day's gloom comes a smattering of bid speculation, this time surrounding ratcatching and parcel group Rentokil.
The company's shares have jumped 5.25p to 102.75p on talk of a possible management buyout. Rentokil has just brought in new management - a team of former ICI executives - but they warned it would take some time to turn around the troubled City Link parcels business.
Early last month, the company reported that first quarter profits had halved and it planned to slash its dividend this year.
Going the other way was power supply business Chloride, down 12% to 249p as US rival Emerson said it had ended talks about a possible 270p a share takeover.
