A spate of takeover excitement was not enough to lift a flagging stock market.
BT added 14.1p to 394.1p after confirming reports it was in talks with two mobile phone companies about a multi-million pound deal. One was O2, spun off from BT in 2001 and then taken over by Spain’s Telefonica, while the other was said to be EE.
TalkTalk Telecom rose 18p to 300.5p on renewed speculation of interest from Vodafone, down 2.75p to 225.05p. JP Morgan Cazenove also helped by repeating its overweight recommendation on TalkTalk.
Elsewhere Smith & Nephew jumped 48p to £11.38 on talk of possible takeover interest from US group Stryker. Stryker said in May it would not make a bid, ruling it out for a six month period. That deadline runs out at the end of this week.
Meanwhile Friends Life climbed 20.5p to 368.2p after Friday’s news of a proposed merger with Aviva, down 29p at 510p.
But a profit warning from Petrofac, partly due to the recent plunge in the oil price, weighed on the market and left the company’s shares 315.5p lower at 877.5p.
Overall the FTSE 100 finished 20.97 points lower at 6729.79 despite better than expected German confidence figures, as investors paused for breath after last week’s central bank fuelled gains. China had unexpectedly cut interest rates to boost its economy, and analysts believe there could be more to come. Meanwhile European Central Bank president Mario Draghi gave more hints the bank was prepared to act to combat deflation, although new remarks from Jens Weidmann, head of Bundesbank, seemed to reinforce Germany’s opposition to any radical action.
Mining shares, boosted on Friday by the Chinese news, fell back on profit taking and renewed worries about global demand.
BHP Billiton lost 41p to £16.21 despite unveiling plans for further cost cutting measures, while Rio Tinto was down 65.5p to 2976.5p and Mexican silver miner Fresnillo fell 17.5p to 746p.
London Stock Exchange was lifted 69p to £21.72 by positive comments from Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, but Hargreaves Lansdown lost 53.5p to 958.5p as Citi cut its recommendation on the investment group from neutral to sell.
Bookmakers were under pressure ahead of a report on addiction from the Responsible Gambling Trust and amid talk that 80 councils were calling for a £2 limit on fixed odds betting terminals, which could knock back their profits. Ladbrokes lost 6.5p to 113.8p while William Hill was 19.3p lower at 339.6p.
Finally MoPowered, a mobile commerce specialist which lost half its value in July after revenues rose less than expected, has disappointed the market again. July’s warning left its shares down 30p to 31.5p and in September it raised £3.5m with a placing at 5p a share. Now it has reported that it made fewer client wins than expected since the placing, with a lower than forecast contract size. With delays on certain projects, revenues for the year are now expected to be lower than City estimates of £1.6m. It has identified further cost savings to conserve cash.
The news pushed its shares down 24% to 5.5p.
