Northern Foods was the worst performer in the FTSE 250, falling 3p to 102p on fears that it would be hit badly by a raging bread war while wheat prices have risen to all-time highs.

It makes private label, unbranded bread and so, unlike Hovis, Warburtons and Kingsmill, which are expected to ramp up their prices, it will be unable to pass on wheat prices to customers, Ian Kellett, an analyst for Numis Securities, said. “Northern is likely to suffer in this environment.”

Premier Foods, its rival, which reports interims on September 4, rose 4¼p to 236p after Jeff Stent, of Citigroup, said that although its bread would also be affected by wheat prices, the shares had fallen too far.

QXL Ricardo, the online auctioneer, rose 53p to 548½p on its second day in the FTSE 250.

Sibir Energy, AIM’s largest company, which intends to move to the full list next year, soared 43p to 525p after it agreed a $900 million (£450 million) deal with the Moscow city government, in which it will buy petrol stations and refineries from the city in return for Moscow taking an 18 per cent stake in the company. Sibir has an ongoing dispute with the state-owned Gazprom Neft over control of the refinery, but it was not clear if this deal would resolve that issue.

Berkeley Scott, the recruitment company, lost 1½p at 47p after it bought its rival Quantica, up 1½p to 46¼p, for £28.3 million. Tony Reeves and John Bowmer bought a controlling stake in Berkeley Scott in January with the intention of consolidating the fragmented industry and they indicated yesterday that they intended to continue.

Spectris, the maker of precision instruments, fell nearly 15½p to 840½p despite roughly in-line interim results.

YooMedia was up 0.2p to 1p after winning a contract to provide mobile phone payments to station car parks for Go-Ahead Group, unchanged at £25.92.

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