AstraZeneca was one of the few gainers on London, driven by hopes of a favourable ruling over challenges to its patent on Seroquel - the hearing has been brought forward to today from June 4 - and growing talk that it could become a bid target for Pfizer or Schering Plough.

The latter's own anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin, developed jointly with Merck, has been criticised by leading medics while Astra's Crestor has done well in trials. Astra rose 1.5 per cent to £23.23, while GlaxoSmithKline gained 1.2 per cent to £11.67

In the FTSE 250, ITE Group, the emerging markets exhibitions organiser, jumped 6 per cent to 176p following strong results yesterday and amid talk that its presence in Russia could make a useful acquistion for a larger media player such as UBM, Reed Elsevier or WPP or to private equity. Two blocks of 300,000 shares changed hands around 9.30am.

But the FTSE 100 was down 71.7 by 10.34am as a bout of profit taking in miners after a very strong run in recent weeks ended their usual support for the index.

Marks & Spencer's failed to reassure the markets with full year results that showed a sales fall accelerating in the final quarter of the year and Sir Stuart Rose pledged to raise capital expenditure on international expansion in a move that would increase debt and interest payments.

M&S lost 3 per cent to 403.5p and Next fell by almost the same amount to £12.42.

In the FTSE 250, Yell Group slumped over 17 per cent to 171.5p after it halved its final dividend to preserve cash and said it would guide revenue forecasts would be flat only for the three months ahead since it could not see further than this.

This and Goldman Sachs triggered another sell off in the hard pressed newspaper sector. Goldman downgraded UK newspaper publsihers from buy to neutral. Johnston Press lost 5 per cent to 118.25p and Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) lost 3 per cent to 425p. Trinity Mirror was down 5 per cent at 243p.

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