The FTSE 100 and its junior partner, the FTSE 250, ran into more pockets of uncomfortably heavy selling pressure, ending a week of unquestionably good news on a subdued note.

The good news for British stock prices came with another burst of takeovers across the mid-cap and small-cap arenas and more strong rumours that bid action is about to erupt in the FTSE 100 list.

And as well as all the bid news, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee decided to sanction a 50 basis points cut in British interest rates. Despite those factors, London registered its unease over developments in the US, where a sharp overnight retreat in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. At the end of a session that saw turnover in British stocks top the 1 billion mark again, the FTSE 100 was finally a net 84.6 lower at 5,855.3, leaving the index 40.7 or 0.7 per cent lower over the week. Yesterday's decline did not prevent the MidCap posting a 187.3, or 3.7 per cent gain over the five days, boosted by the emergence of a series of big bids in the second-liners.