London afternoon: Bid rumours relieve the gloom

It's a case of 'another day, another bid rumour' for London, with bid speculation about engineering group Invensys and oil explorer Tullow Oil providing a bit of cheer to a subdued market. The rumour-mongers are suggesting that the UK engineering conglomerate could be the subject of a 350p per share bid, possibly from US holding company General Electric or Swiss powerhouse ABB.As for Tullow, that's supposed to be in the sights of a Chinese energy group. A £20 per share valuation has been mentioned.Yesterday's takeover candidate, telecoms group Cable & Wireless Worldwide, is the biggest faller among FTSE 100 stocks as profit takers exit stage left with their pockets jangling.Moving on from speculation to the world of hard facts, there are to be a few changes at the top at a couple of Britain's banking giants. Barclays is lower after it confirmed Bob Diamond, head of its investment banking arm, Barclays Capital, will take over as chief executive when John Varley steps down at the end of March next year. Diamond, who has been running the investment banking division since 1997 when it was BZW, becomes president and deputy group chief executive at the beginning of next month.Meanwhile, HSBC chairman Stephen Green is stepping down after being appointed as Trade Minister.Costa Coffee and Premier Inns owner Whitbread said like for like (LFL) sales growth has accelerated since June. Year on year sales growth in the 24 weeks to 19 August was 7.9%, up from 7.6% in the 13 weeks to 3 June.Package tour operator TUI Travel is weaker after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy", while Homebase and Argos owner Home Retail is on many people's sell list in anticipation of the stock losing its FTSE 100 status.Banknote printer De La Rue is to take a £35m hit to its interim pre-tax profits as a result of the problems it encountered at one of the firm's paper production facilities. The company said this morning that some of its employees had been deliberately falsifying paper specification test certificates for banknotes. The shipment of affected banknote paper was immediately stopped when the irregularities were first identified back in July, and all production is now in line with specifications, it said.Good sales of food through its managed outlets are keeping pub operator and brewer Greene King on track. After 18 weeks to 5 September, like-for-like sales at Greene King Retail were up by 4.4% and sales at Scottish arm Belhaven 3.3% ahead.Online grocery distributor Ocado's first figures since its troubled listing in July showed strong growth with gross sales up 29.5% to £126.5m for the 12 weeks to 8 August, though the size of the average order declined again. Equipment rental group Ashtead trumped the market's profit expectations handsomely in the first quarter of its financial year. Underlying profit before tax in the three months ended 31 July was £11.9m, up 35% (18% at constant exchange rates) from £8.8m in the company's first quarter of 2009. That figure beat the most optimistic broker forecast of £7.4m.Struggling social housing maintenance group Connaught has asked that its shares be suspended as its financial situation becomes ever more precarious. It doesn't think it will be able to prise additional funds from its lenders and, although it's still talking to other parties, admits "the ability to provide an adequate solution to the funding issues the group faces has become increasingly uncertain". Legacy software specialist Micro Focus has appointed former Morse chief executive Mike Phillips as its new Chief Financial Officer. Phillips replaces Nick Bray and starts at Micro Focus on 4 October. Office products wholesaler DS Smith has been trading in line with expectations in its new financial year with volume growth seen throughout the group. Reporting on trading since 1 May, the first quarter of the company's financial year, the company said volume growth has been led by its Fast Moving Consumer Goods section. Gem Diamonds has pulled another huge rough diamond from its Let?eng mine in Lesotho. The 196 carat rough white diamond was recovered on 24 August 2010. It is expected to achieve a substantial price per carat as preliminary examinations indicate it could produce top colour and top clarity polished diamonds, Gem said.Bob Lawson, non-executive chairman of Barratt Developments, has been named as the new non-executive chairman at animal genetics company Genus. He will succeed John Hawkins after the company's AGM in November. The company said this morning that underlying profit before tax rose 3% to £32.9m in the year to 30 June from £32.0m a year earlier, although on a constant exchange rates basis profits were flat.Shares in African Consolidated Resources fell sharply after the Zimbabwe-focused miner said that the country's High Court rescinded a judgement last year validating the company's mining claims in the Marange diamond field.Norcros, the company behind Triton Showers and Johnson Tiles, expects trading for the current financial year to beat expectations after maintaining its strong start to the year.