Carphone Warehouse was the top performer on talk of strong iPhone sales and bid speculation.

The shares were up 5.7 per cent at 351p.

The company has been buoyed in the past by talk of a bid from Best Buy of the US, which has bought a small stake and has a US joint venture with it. But analysts have played this down, since Best Buy is thought to be more interested in expanding in emerging markets. However, Mirabaud Securities analyst Steve Clayton said a Best Buy bid could not be ruled out. It has a market cap of £10 billion and spare cash.

"A cash deal would be both enhancing straight off and lead to an acceleration in the medium term growth rate for Best Buy whilst also giving it entry into a number of European markets in an above average growth product category, " he said.

Vodafone was the other rumoured predator but analysts believe this unlikely since the retailer’s business model is to be independent of individual mobile operators.

Traders said more likely is talk of soar away Christmas sales particularly of iPhones. DSG International warned over sales of laptop yesterday. The reason DSG’s laptops sales have suffered may be that people have been buying i-Phones instead, only available from O2 and Carphone stores.

G4S, the former Group Four Security, was down 2 per cent at 229.5p after an institution sold 3.5 million shares at 229.5p via a placing arranged by Dresdner Kleinwort.

The FTSE-100 was helped by rising copper prices which drove mining stocks. By 11.42 it was up 46 at 6525.4. Rio Tinto was up 3 per cent at £55.32 while its would-be predator BHP Billiton rose 2.8 per cent to £16.41.

Xstrata gained 2 per cent to £36.51. There was vague speculation that Brazilian predator Vale was already conducting due diligence. Lonmin was up 1.8 per cent at £32.60.

Marks & Spencer lost 2.4 per cent to 530.5p after Citigroup cut its price target from 750p to 650p saying that market data showed that the clothing market had deteriorated sharply since October.

Next, which warned it saw no sales growth in 2008 yesterday fell another 1.9 per cent to £15.23.

Fears about tighter consumer spending weighed on InterContinental Hotels, which lost 2.4 per cent to 840p.

In the FTSE-250, Berkeley Group, the housebuilder was the worst performer, down 16 per cent to £10.93 after it went ex dividend. The company has a strategy of paying out most of its earnings as dividends. Savills, the estate agent, was the number two mid cap faller, down 5 per cent as fears over falling prices of upmarket homes continued to weight. Smaller rival LSL Property Services, unchanged at 138p, also added to fears yesterday with a profit warning.

Shanks Group, the waste collector, was the biggest riser, up 4 per cent at 240p, as traders speculated it could be the next to receive a bid following the offer for Biffa from a consortium of infrastructure investors.

Nestor Healthcare soared 41 per cent to 49p after it said it had received a bid approach from "potential offerors". The recruiter of nurses and after-hour doctors warned in November of delayed contracts and that it was close to breaching its covenants. It said back in June it had received an approach from a private equity group and later said others had approached but talks were terminated in August since no "recommendable" offers had been received. Mears Group, up 9.75p at 241.75p has recently branched into healthcare, is keen to do acquisitions and is seen as a potential predator.

Explore Markets

• United States

• Europe

• Japan

• China

• Russia

• The Gulf

• India

• Africa

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive