With talk of an advertising recession in Britain, can the company that publishes Yellow Pages remain immune? Traders decided the answer was “no” yesterday and, helped by a downgrade from UBS, after one by Lehman Brothers on Monday, Yell was the worst blue-chip performer, off 21¼p, more than 6 per cent, at 321¾p.

Ian Whittaker, of UBS, believes that the shares are worth 330p. Lehman Brothers has a 223p target. Mr Whittaker says that Yell may be forced to cut listing prices by more than expected when it is freed from the Competition Commission’s price cap from April. The company has not recovered from an April profit warning over mounting competition in the United States. RH Donnelley and Idearc, its American rivals, have been more cautious about current trading. Idearc is predicting flat revenues and thinner margins for the year.

The FTSE 100 managed to close up 20.8 at 6,356.5, as rising metals and oil prices helped to offset more pressure on housebuilders and retailers. Miners such as Lonmin, up 117p at £32.62, led the way, thanks to the rising platinum price and Cazenove raising its rating to “outperform”, saying that investors had not caught up with the price of the metal, which also boosted Aquarius Platinum 33p to close at 611p.

Minerva, the property group, rose 8p to 142p on heavy volume as traders reported interest from buyers who usually move on takeover talk. Later the company said that it had found an anchor tenant for its St Botolph London office block. Rehashed rumours of a rights issue from Royal Bank of Scotland caused its shares to drop 12½p at first, but they closed unchanged at 418¼p. Lloyds TSBfell 8½p to 443½p on a “sell” note from Morgan Stanley, saying that its dividend would be under pressure this year.

MF Global did its bit for the miners, upgrading Rio Tinto, up 102p at £51.34, to a “buy” on hopes of a raised bid from BHP Billiton, or that a rival such as Xstrata, Vale, RusAl or Anglo American might counterbid. Xstrata, up 53p at £33.65, is still being eyed by Vale, of Brazil. Anglo American closed up 47p at £29.48.

Smith & Nephew, the knee joint maker, was the top blue-chip performer, closing up 43½p at 640p on more than three times recent average volumes. The stock is seen as a good defensive play and there have also been rumours that the private equity owners of Biomet, its rival, might bid. Bids from other peers are thought to be unlikely on competition grounds.

BT was the second-best gainer, up 13¾p to 277¾p, after Bear Stearns predicted that cost-cutting and growing sales of IT services would help it to reach 406p by December, a price not seen since the dying days of the dot-com boom in 2001.

Fears that Persimmon would issue a warning on 2008 profits today sent it down 33½p to 651½p, while Taylor Wimpeylost 8.7p to 171.1p. ABN Amro cut both builders from “hold” to “sell” after a savaging by Dresdner Klein-wort on Monday.

New York: Wall Street plunged in another erratic session as investors worried that the tumbling economy may not only cripple mortgage lenders such as Countrywide Financial but also create problems for other companies, such as AT&T. The Dow Jones industrial average finished 238.42 points down at 12,589.07.

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