A flurry of bid rumours around some of Britain’s big high street brands sent short-sellers scurrying out of Kingfisher, Kesa and DSG International.

Volumes of trading in Kingfisher were higher than usual amid talk that a private equity firm was running the rule over the owner of B&Q in the UK and Brico and Castorama in France. A price of 195p was mentioned, which would value the group at £8 billion including debt – probably too high for venture capitalists in the present debt market.

Home Depot, the usual rumoured predator, cut its American expansion plans last week to try to preserve cash – just as Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher’s new chief, has done. However, Brico and Castorama are doing well and there is a chance that Home Depot or Lowe’s, its rival, has teamed up with a private equity firm to look at a break-up bid. Kingfisher shares rose 5.4p to 151.7p.

Suggestions by Best Buy’s chief executive that he would not rule out eventually buying the Comet stores from Kesa Electrical or even Currys and PC World from DSG International made both retailers among the top mid-cap performers. DSG rose 3¾p to 74¼p while Kesa climbed 10½p to 227p.

Nick Bubb, an analyst at Pali International, said: “The timing’s wrong, now that Best Buy has committed to using Carphone Warehouse for its UK expansion. Why not wait until it has hammered its rivals into the ground?”

DSG was also buoyed by hopes that John Browett, its new chief executive, will unveil radical surgery with results on Thursday. JPMorgan said that he should at least shut or sell PC City in Italy and Spain and Electroworld in Poland.

The FTSE 100 finished up 15.9 points at 6,220.6, but trading volumes were low. Persistently low volumes are bad for the London Stock Exchange, up 2p at £10.65. Credit Suisse cut its earnings forecasts and its target price to £11, noting that average daily volume on the bourse had fallen by 20 per cent in April from March.

Kazakhmys, down 13p at £17.73, fell further after a low-ball £15.50 bid on Friday from Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC), its domestic rival. Lehman Brothers suggested that ENRC, up 29p at £13.36, might raise its bid in time for this Friday’s deadline. “We believe ENRC may be making a very low initial offer to . . . demonstrate that the market price of its shares includes a substantial takeout premium,” it said.

Xstrata rose 9p to £41.95 as Credit Suisse said that a bid for Alcoa, of the United States, would make sense, given its forecasts that aluminium prices will soar.

Fears of rights issues continued to weigh on the bank sector, with Barclays down 6¾p at 444¾p and Lloyds TSB off 8¼p to 424¾p. Citigroup cut its Barclays target price to 350p and predicted a £6 billion to £12 billion rights issue.

Informa closed up 3½p at 389¾p amid vague talk of industry consolidation. Credit Suisse said that the Apax-owned Incisive Media had told it that a merger with United Business Media, up 11½p to 615½p, was possible.

— New York: Stocks rose as oil prices retreated from record highs, the dollar gained strength and investors looked to pick up bargains. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 130.40 points at 12,876.30.

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