The FTSE 100 ended close to the unchanged mark on Wednesday with little in the way of economic or corporate news to give it any fresh direction. But the Aim market provided some welcome excitement, with Messaging International under the spotlight following rumours of an imminent Apple deal.
The company's shares soared more than 150% in frenzied trading after talk on internet message boards that it was close to unveiling a deal with the US giant.
The company, whose services allow pictures, music and text to be sent from PCs to mobile phones, poured cold water on the rumours but its shares still ended up 0.55p, or 110%, at 1.05p - the highest for two years.
It responded to an early leap in the share price with a trading update - but that statement failed to mention Apple. It left lingering doubts about tie-ups with the iPhone maker by merely saying:
"The company continues to strengthen current partnerships and customer relationships and forge new alliances with mobile operators."
Asked about a partnership with Apple specifically a spokeswoman added: "The rumour is completely unfounded."
The FTSE 100 had a rather muted close compared with the big moves of recent sessions. The index closed up just 3.9 points at 4689.7. Early losses were erased when Wall Street failed to open as low as traders had feared given a big sell-off in China overnight.
Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) was the top riser on the FTSE 100 - up 48.5p, or 6.2%, at 825.5p - after its results beat expectations. First-half earnings per share fell 59% from a year earlier to 43 cents but that was well above a consensus forecast of 34.43 cents compiled by the company.
Chief executive Johannes Sittard cited "considerable market pressures" but also a boost from strong demand for metals in China.
Commenting on months ahead, ENRC said:
"We believe that the remainder of 2009 will show some improvement on the first half, particularly because of the continuing demand for metals from China. While it is difficult to be certain about the sustainability of global demand, we believe that if maintained this may indicate that the longer term recovery in the metals markets is underway."
Lloyds was also among the top risers - up 2% to 98.72p after the bank's announcement it was reviewing a decision to close all Cheltenham & Gloucester branches.
Elsewhere among the top risers, support services group Serco rose 2.4% to 438p and G4S rose 1.9% to 217.3p after Evolution Securities started coverage with "buy" and "neutral" recommendations, respectively.
Drugmaker Shire was one of the top fallers, down 26p, or 2.5%, to £10.11 after JP Morgan cut its stance on the shares to "neutral" from "overweight" following their recent strong run.
Banks were also largely weaker, with HSBC the hardest hit, down 13p, or 2%, at 643p.
Further down the market, newspaper ditributor John Menzies cheered investors by predicting that full-year profits will beat the current view. Underlying pretax profits in the first half were up 15.8% to £13.2m. The optimistic outlook lifted the shares 56.7p, or 24.2%, to 291p.
Elsewhere, Sony's widely expected price cut to its PS3 console announced on Tuesday night boosted shares in games and console retailers HMV and Game Group, up 0.6% and 1.5%, respectively.
Peter Smedley, analyst at Charles Stanley commented:
"This price cut, coupled with a strong exciting new video games release schedule for Autumn/Christmas 2009, should see GAME benefitting from strong sales of Sony consoles, and more importantly, high margin software of Sony-related games."
"We believe that this news is the most significant news so far in 2009 and is clearly a positive for GAME as it underpins management-guided consensus forecasts which do not include the assumption of a PS3 price cut in 2009. We would also argue this news is a positive for HMV."
There was also reassuring news for investors in heart monitoring company LiDCO. The Aim-listed group said it was on on track to deliver a maiden profit in the coming full year lifting its shares 1p, or 6.1%, to 17.5p.
Health and social care provider Care UK was headed the other way. Its shares fell 17.5p, or 5.7%, to 287.5p after reporting it had not seen the normal second half increase in the hours of care delivered at its Community Care division because the recession meant local authorities and Primary Care Trusts were increasingly adopting tighter criteria for the placement and funding of services. "This will materially impact the profitability of this division in the current financial year," the company admitted.
Investors lapped up acquisition news from speciality pharmaceutical compancy Alliance Pharma. Its shares rose 1p, or 6.3%, to 17p after the company announced on Tuesday night that it had snapped up the rights to two high-margin brands from consumer products giant Reckitt Benckiser. Alliance has bought the worldwide rights to nausea and vomiting treatment Buccastem and to Timodine, an anti-fungal skin cream, for a total consideration of £7.5m.
Finally, IT consultants Morse sunk 5.25p, or 17.1%, to 26p after the company said takeover discussions had ended.
