Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror, defied a retreating market on talk that India’s biggest media group, Bennett Coleman, was considering a bid.

The publisher of The Times of India, controlled by the Sahu Jain family, is known to be on the hunt for foreign acquisitions and could afford the £800 million debt, pension liability and equity cost of Trinity, since its own worth has been estimated at between $15 billion and $25 billion. It recently bought Virgin Radio from SMG for £53 million.

But some bankers in Bombay question whether it would want to acquire an ailing asset in a shrinking UK market when it has better growth opportunities at home.

The rumours helped Trinity’s shares to recover from a 5¼p fall to close up 3½p at 92¼p.

It was a rare bright spot. The FTSE 100 lost 87.6 points to 5,362.3, dragged down by mining and oil stocks as the oil price continued to retreat and fears grew about falling global demand for steel and cars. These were stoked by shock production cuts from Renault in France and Daimler in Germany in the face of weak demand, and grim results from Ford in America. Finland’s stainless steel producing giant Outokumpu also gave warning that it would dive into losses owing to weaker demand.

This hurt Finland’s Talvivaara, which mines nickel for stainless steel, down 28p at 279¾p, and iron ore miners – Eurasian Natural Resources, down 6½p at 949p, and Ferrexpo, off 10¼p at 253p.

Lonmin, which produces platinum for autocatalysts, was down another 154p to £24.15.

In the FTSE 250, Aricom, the iron ore miner in Russia whose unique selling point has been its closeness to China, lost 9¾p to 57p. It has enough cash to last until next May and has hired Morgan Stanley to raise a $1 billion loan. The company has denied this will come through equity and a spokesman yesterday said he knew of no reason for the fall.

In the Netherlands, TNT fell 16 per cent to €22 after a report that FedEx in the US had pulled out of bid talks. But there is continuing speculation that rival United Parcel Services is preparing a cash bid. FedEx’s offer was rumoured to be in cash and shares. JPMorgan said UPS could afford to pay up to €34.80.

The London Stock Exchange, 60 per cent down on the year, bounced 24½p to 849p after Morgan Stanley said the falls had gone too far.

British Energy jumped 42½p to 728½p after it said it was in “advanced” talks with one party. The Times reported yesterday that Centrica, down 1¾p to 308¼p, will help EDF in its bid. G4S gained 1¾p to £17.97 on vague talk of a Middle Eastern bid.

Bradford & Bingley defied a sliding bank sector with a 3½p gain to 59½p after it raised £2.9 billion in securitised mortgage loans.

Moneysupermarket fell 1¼p to 83p after the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan ruled itself out for six months from making a bid. Citigroup said a bid price of 100p would make sense.

— New York: Stocks fell as concerns about further losses on mortgage-related assets and the prospect of increased regulation weighed on the financial sector. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down by 283.10 points at 11,349.30.

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