Southern Cross Healthcare headed the mid-cap risers as Blackstone completed the placement of a 21 per cent stake in the care homes operator.

Some 40 million shares were placed with institutional investors by UBS and Morgan Stanley at 318¾p on behalf of the private equity group. Blackstone retains a 20 per cent stake which it must hold until March at the earliest. The shares gained 26¼p to 345p.

The FTSE 250 index gave up 70.0 points to 11,245.00, with the mid-cap oil stocks under pressure from the lower oil price. Venture Production lost 47p to 827½p, Burren Energy fell 44½p to 844½p and Dana Petroleum gave up 57p at £11.77. Traders said the lower oil price had combined with underlying concerns that mid-cap oil stocks were too expensive.

Meggitt put in one of the better performances as stake-building in Cobham, up 3p to 198½p, sparked talk of defence sector consolidation. Meggitt added 6p to 320p.

Wood Group fell 8p to 255½p as it emerged that Wendell Brooks, a director of the energy services group, had offloaded 100,000 shares in the group at 263p a share. The sale leaves him with a further 693,000 shares.

Waterford Wedgwood, the Irish crystal to Royal Doulton group, ticked up €0.01 to €0.08 as the group’s Christmas trading update pointed to an “encouraging” Christmas. The group said in November that it was on course to make a profit in 2007 after several years of losses.

Yesterday’s update revealed that while trading in the nine months to December 31 was in line with the previous year, sales in December pushed the group to its strongest Christmas performance in five years.

Berkeley Scott, the recruitment group, put on 6p to 34½p after securing £2.5 million of investment from two investors who become co-chairmen.

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