A fall for J Sainsbury in the wake of its private equity stalkers dropping their bid attempt, some cautious comments on the property sector and pressure on copper miner Kazakhmys put the FTSE 100 in the red by Wednesday's close.
Having held onto modest gains for much of the day, the index of London's leading shares slipped just ahead of the close to end down 4.5 points on the day at 6413.3.
It was a quiet start to the day for J Sainsbury, but it gradually made its way up the FTSE 100's losers board throughout the afternoon as speculation grew that the remaining private equity group considering a buyout attempt would soon throw in the towel. And CVC did indeed announce it was no longer interested in trying to buy the supermarket chain. It had been left as a lone contender after its prospective co-bidders Texas Pacific and Blackstone pulled out of the private equity consortium earlier this week.
Sainsbury's shares ended down 12.5p, or 2.3%, at 526p, making them the third-largest fallers in the FTSE 100.
Analysts put the fact the share price fall was not sharper down to the talk of awards in store for shareholders.
"Some of the reason for the shares not declining further is that there is still speculation the management themselves could gear up the balance sheet using the group's property portfolio and that money could be returned to shareholders," said Keith Bowman at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.
But it wasn't all downhill for retail stocks today, with Marks & Spencer and Alliance Boots both on the rise thanks to ongoing M&A talk.
Marks & Spencer was up 20p, or 2.9%, at 715p, making it the strongest performer of the day. Traders cited a boost from investors switching out of Sainsbury's as well as some vague but predictable bid talk. There was also support from new data signalling buoyant consumer spending. According to the British Retail Consortium, shopkeepers enjoyed their fastest sales growth for nearly a year last month and food sales were particularly strong.
Alliance Boots continued to climb following news earlier this week that the Wellcome Trust, the world's largest medical research charity, has waded into the battle for the pharmacy chain by teaming up with the private equity group Terra Firma. Boots shares added 15p, or 1.5%, to £10.50, making them the second-biggest climber behind Marks.
Back on the losers board, several spots were taken up by property companies following a sector downgrade by Lehman Brothers. Wolseley shed 30p to £12.44, British Land lost 11p to £15.71 and Land Securities slipped 20p to £21.78. Lehman analysts said in a research report that they had moved the UK REIT (Real Estate Investment Trusts) sector from to a "neutral" recommendation from "positive", citing "slowing capital growth prospects across the UK commercial real estate markets and challenging equity valuations given dividend characteristics". They downgraded British Land, Hammerson and Land Securities to "equal-weight" from "overweight".
Copper miner Kazakhmys was also one of the day's biggest fallers despite the red metal's ascent to a seven-month high early on in the day. Kazakhmys was down 46p, or 3.8%, to £11.74 after its former chief executive Y K Cha placed his remaining 4.5% stake with institutional investors, netting him more than £250m.
Back among the risers, rival mining group Xstrata was one of the day's biggest climbers after it revealed it was selling its aluminium business to private equity group Apollo. After announcing the sale would bring in $1.15bn, Xstrata's shares were up 22p to £27.79.
Further down the market software group Alterian slipped 0.5p to 167p despite a positive trading update. Analysts at house broker Investec reiterated their "buy" recommendation on the shares.
"The company's ongoing strong performance in North America has been matched by a resurgent UK business," said Investec's Gareth Evans.
Among the smallcaps, racecourse operator Arena Leisure dropped 2p, or 2.6%, to 75.5p after analysts at Altium Securities cut their recommendation on the shares to "hold" from "buy".
"Arena's share price has powered ahead since we initiated coverage last year, rightly so in our view. Whilst the business has continued to deliver to plan, and encouragingly detailed planning permission was recently granted for the hotel and residential development at Doncaster, we believe that M&A speculation has acted as the chief driver of the share price over recent days," they said in a morning note.
Marketing services group Creston was up 3p, or 1.6%, to 196p as the market welcomed a trading update that flagged up new clients including eBay and J Sainsbury.
Creston, which last year unveiled a product that scans blogs and gives companies a strategy on how to protect their brand, said all its divisions were trading in line with expectations.
Elsewhere in the media sector, Aim-listed digital broadcaster Cellcast rose 2.9p, or 35.4%, to 11p after announcing deals with two television channels in Brazil to supply its interactive snippits between shows. The group also sought to reassure investors that current trading was not affected by UK investigations into TV quiz phone-ins.
"We believe that the current review of participation-TV in the UK is extremely beneficial for the long-term future of the industry," said chief executive Andrew Wilson. "It should prove advantageous for Cellcast, since we have substantial experience of markets in which the regulatory environment is more stringent and clearly defined."
Surging uranium prices sent up shares in Vane Minerals. Accompanying news that it had expanded into new parts of Arizona, where it hopes to find new deposits, helped it add 1.5p, or 6.7%, to 24p.
One to watch over coming days on the junior stock market is Renewable Power & Light. The company has bought two traditional power stations in the north-eastern United States and is in the process of upgrading the plants so they can produce electricity on biodiesel. Today they announced the successful completion of a test burn at one of the plants, helping to lift their shares 2.5p, or 1.9%, to 137.5p - almost double the 70p they floated at in December.
Elsewhere on Aim, communications systems maker Software Radio Technology rose 4.5p to 48.5p on news that the Federal Communications Commission of the US has approved its marine identification system for use in harbours, opening up a key market. It also emerged that Gartmore has increased its stake in the group to 16%.