FTSE slips slightly

Another round of takeover speculation limited falls on the London market after traders had earlier reacted to a poor session in New York.

Cadbury Schweppes took its turn in the bid spotlight, while tobacco stocks were also ignited after a period of recent weakness.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1% lower, the FTSE 100 Index was under pressure for a second successive session with a drop of 18.4 points to 6250.9 at mid-morning. The weakness followed disappointing economic data in the US.

Power station company Drax led the Footsie fallers board, down 17.5p to 702p, after Citigroup’s warning about the impact of lower gas prices troubled shares in the company for a second day.

Drax was followed lower by AstraZeneca, as JPMorgan cut its price target for the stock ahead of next week’s full-year results from the pharmaceuticals company. Astra fell by 30p to 2814p.

Royal Dutch Shell, which also publishes results on Thursday, was ahead 6p to 1724p, partly as a result of higher oil prices.

Cadbury was 13p higher at 573p after traders cited vague bid speculation. Among the tobacco firms, Imperial Tobacco rose 60p to 2113p, British American Tobacco gained 24p at 1523p and Gallaher added 6.5p at 1137p.

Outside the top flight, JJB Sports shares were 4% lower after it emerged founder David Whelan had sold 8% of the company’s shares.

Investors took the £50 million fundraising by Mr Whelan as a signal that speculation of a takeover bid had been wide of the mark. Shares were off 10.25p at 247.75p.

Meanwhile, investors were counting down to the midnight deadline for Nasdaq to announce whether it will raise its offer for the London Stock Exchange. Shares have fallen recently on expectation that Nasdaq will walk away, but the stock recovered to stand 13p higher at 1296p.