Gilts

Lehman Brothers’ collapse sparked a flight to safe-haven government bonds. The December gilt future rose 111 ticks to 111.99. The yield on ten-year bonds fell nearly 15 basis points to 4.44 per cent. The Bank of England said that it was monitoring conditions in sterling money markets and would act to stabilise them if necessary.

Rumour of the day

President Mugabe’s power-sharing deal with the Opposition in Zimbabwe helped Lonrho to rise 3p to 30p amid strong volumes of 4.2 million shares. Lonrho has the contract to manage the recently AIM-floated LonZim, up 1p at 100p, as well as having a 20 per cent stake in the business. LonZim invests in Zimbabwean companies.

Deal of the day

William Rucker, non-executive director at Rentokil Initial, bought 100,000 shares at 72.4p. Shares in the rat catcher-to-parcel delivery group closed down ¼p at 74p. It has struggled with a succession of profit warnings and last month said that profits were down 53 per cent. The group said it was considering raising up to £100 million in bond debt.

Bet of the day

Just how far will the FTSE 100 fall? For the ultrabears, Ladbrokes is offering 10-1 that the index will close below 4,500 on Friday. It has yet to match the lowest level so far this year – 5,150.62 – which was hit in mid-July. Ladbrokes does not expect a fall all the way to 4,500 yet, but that view will change should another financial institution collapse.

Tiddler to watch

WIN, the mobile data company, has signed a partnership with Sony Ericsson to support the launch of PlayNow, its digital rights management free music download site. The company, down 1½p at 120p, will be responsible for securing locally relevant content and the life-cycle management of the content.

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