And the speculative tales surrounding FTSE 100 stocks continue, which just goes to show how febrile the market is at the moment.
Mining group Vedanta Resources closed 127p higher at £21.99 on talk of Chinese stakebuilding, something that has helped fire up the sector ever since the state-backed Chinalco stepping into the BHP/Rio bid by buying a stake in Rio.
Fund management group Schroders added 28p to 977p on late rumours of bid interest, while elsewhere there was said to be Qatari or Kuwaiti interest in banking groups Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB. Both banks saw hefty trades this morning, but traders were sceptical that necessarily meant interest from sovereign wealth funds. RBS fell 3.5p to 410p while Lloyds was 6p lower at 476.25p.
Yesterday of course, came talk of a possible £14-a-share offer for pharmaceuticals group Shire, which was treated with some caution by traders. Shire added another 11p to £10.26.
An opening rise on Wall Street followed news that mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be allowed to invest more in the beleaguered US housing market. So the FTSE 100 came off its worst levels to close 10.9 points lower at 6076.5. The fall follows two days of strong gains for the leading index.
