There was good news and bad news for ITV shareholders last night. First, the bad news, for it looked as if the commercial broadcaster was about to become the highest-profile casualty of the latest FTSE 100 reshuffle.

ITV has been a constituent of the blue-chip index since it was formed in 2004 by the merger of Granada and Carlton. Its share price has fallen of late as investors sold because of fears that the slowdown in the economy will hit advertising revenues. Relegation would come as a blow to Michael Grade, the group’s executive chairman, who returned to ITV in late 2006 to lead a turnaround.

Now a little the good news, because, ironically perhaps, its shares led the index’s risers yesterday, closing up 1.8p at 45.8p, after the appointment of Ian Griffiths, previously at Emap, as finance director. Analysts speculated that the move was positive for those seeking mergers and acquisitions - Endemol and Mediaset have been linked to the group in recent days.

ITV will be followed by three others on their way out of the blue-chip index, to be replaced by four of the FTSE 250’s most valuable companies, based on yesterday’s closing prices. The changes will be confirmed after the market closes today and will take effect at the end of trading on Friday, September 19.

The reshuffle is also expected to claim the FTSE 100 status of Ferrexpo, the Ukrainian miner, which closed down 13.4p at 172.1p; Enterprise Inns, the pubs group, which fell 20¾p to 265p; and Carphone Warehouse, up ½p at 199½p. The most eye-catching of the replacements is likely to be the return of Autonomy, the software group, once a darling of the dot-com boom. Its shares fell 35p to £10.50. The changes are also expected to see a return for Stagecoach, the bus group, down 4¾p to 313¼p. Fresnillo, the owner of the world’s largest silver mine in Mexico, down 37½p to 352½p, and Inmarsat, the satellite group, up 3½p to 529p, are likely to be promoted.

Overall the FTSE 100 fell 30.7 points to 5,415.6 as early losses on Wall Street brought an end to the rally sparked by the US Government’s bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the mortgage groups. However, banking stocks remained cheered by the weekend’s news, with HSBC, up 12¼p to 906¼p, rising to levels not seen since early November last year. Barclays rose 10¾p to 365¾p and Royal Bank of Scotland rose 4½p to 249p. HBOS, up 1½p to 308½p, was also buoyed by comments from analysts at Goldman Sachs, who said that the lender’s liquidity concerns were more than priced in.

The financial sector’s gains were more than offset by falls for miners such as Kazakhmys, down 92½p at 904½p, and Xstrata, 206p lower at £23.58, which fell as commodity prices weakened.

In the FTSE 250 Informa fell 11½p to 387½p after the Takeover Panel slapped a “put up or shut up” order on a consortium of private equity groups circling the publishing and events company, giving it to September 26 to make an offer or walk away.

- New York: Stocks sank on Wall Street as fears about further problems in the financial sector resurfaced. Shares of Lehman Brothers skidded 44 per cent, their biggest percentage decline ever. At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 280.00 points at 11,230.70.

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