Talk of a bid for Carphone Warehouse made it the top performer of just four blue chip stocks that managed to end the day in the black.

Anecdotal evidence from the high street suggests that, while consumers have reined back buying computers - particularly from DSG International’s Currys and PC World – they are still spending on the latest gadgets such as iPhones at Carphone.

Carphone’s US joint venture partner, Best Buy, with a 3 per cent stake, is seen as a potential predator. Steve Clayton, a Mirabaud Securities analyst, said a bid could not be ruled out. While Carphone gained 8¾p to 340½p, the FTSE 100 collapsed 130.9 points to close at 6,348.5. It had been 55 points up before US payroll figures came out showing higher than expected unemployment and fewer than expected new jobs.

Liberty International, the Lakeside shopping centre developer, was the worst hit, down 75p at £10.11. It was also affected by a profit warning from one of its tenants, Land of Leather, down 54¾p at 59p. This followed hard on the heels of Thursday’s warning from another tenant, DSG, off 1p at 77p.

Kingfisher, owner of B&Q, fell 75p to a 13-year low of 130p as fears about a consumer slowdown took hold. Next shed another 88p to £14.64, despite buying back 1.5 million shares. Marks & Spencer lost 24½p to 518½p after Citigroup cut its price target from 750p to 650p, saying the clothing market had deteriorated sharply since October.

Enterprise Inns, the pub operator, lost another 25p to 420p amid fears that its pubs had experienced a big slowdown in beer sales since November.

ITV lost 4.6p to 78.1p in heavy volume, on talk that BSkyB, down 23p to 576½p, was either selling or about to sell some of its 17.9 per cent stake. John Hutton, the Business Secretary, must decide soon whether to agree with the Competition Commission and demand that the satellite broadcaster sell down to 7.9 per cent.

Fears over advertising were weighing on media stocks. Pearson lost 27p to 693p after Credit Suisse said the textbook and Financial Times publisher would be hit by credit crunch-related cutbacks in US education budgets. It also gave warning of weakening financial advertising.

Fears about holiday spending weighed on InterContinental Hotels, which lost 44½p to 816½p. Mark Brumby of Oriel Securities pointed to talk that Holidaybreak, up 6p at 675½p, was offering 20 per cent commission to agents who sell its Keycamp holidays this month.

G4Slost 7¾p to 226¼p after an institution sold 3.5 million shares at 229½p via a placing arranged by Dresdner Kleinwort. Vague talk that the Brazilian predator Vale was getting closer to agreeing a takeover of Xstrata failed to stop the miner losing 53p to £35.22.

Shanks Group bucked the trend with a 5p gain to 235½p on takeover hopes and talk of higher government spending on waste disposal. Berkeley Group, the housebuilder, was the worst mid-cap performer, down 245p to £10.54, after it went ex dividend.

New York: Stocks tumbled, with the Nasdaq logging its sharpest decline in nearly a year, after data showing rising unemployment stoked expectations of a recession. The Dow Jones industrial average finished 256.50 points down at 12,800.20.

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