The heat on takeover talk surrounding Clapham House was turned up to high yesterday as a large chunk of shares changed hands in the owner of Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Tootsies.

There were 2.2 million Clapham shares traded amid talk that WH Ireland, the broker, was buying a 5 per cent stake for Capricorn Ventures, the owner of the Nando’s chain. Capricorn already has 14.5 per cent and has not ruled out a bid. Cinven, which owns PizzaExpress and ASK, was also understood to have been contemplating a takeover before Clapham’s profit warning in December.

However, the shares fell 10½p to 156½p as the sector was punished after a grim trading statement from The Restaurant Group and the news that Sports Cafe, down 4¼p to 3¼p, had begun talks with its banks to persuade them to extend loans after suffering a dire Christmas.

The recently floated New Britain Palm Oil, which climbed 10p to 465p, and Anglo Eastern, up 25½p at 545p, reached highs as a global palm oil shortage pushed the price of the commodity to a record. Malaysia has begun to ration the oil and India is poised to cut import duties.

Chromogenex, a maker of lasers used for eye surgery, rose 0.875p to 5¼p after it reported record third-quarter sales and hired Allan Branch as its new chief executive.

Nighthawk Energy, the American oil explorer, slipped 3p to 46p, but Daniel Stewart set a 90p target, saying it was undervalued since it has 17 million barrels of proven reserves and probable reserves are set to expand.

Flomerics, a supplier of simulation software, fell 4p to 52½p after it gave warning on full-year profits.

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