Cadbury suffered from the fallout from Warren Buffet's criticism of Kraft's bid antics and Hershey's reluctance to firm up on interest in the confectioner. Cadbury shares sank a further 7p at 772p.

Other notable blue chip losers included household goods conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser, down 57p at 3,260p, and FT publisher Pearson, off 13p at 873p.

Down the list, home delivery pizza outfit Domino's Pizza continued to impress, with sales for the quarter to 27th December up 15.6% to £112.4m, but profit-taking forced the shares down 4.7p at 305.3p.

Majestic Wine rose 12.5p at 227.5p when it said sales surged nearly 12% in the nine weeks to 4th January as its decision to cut its minimum order rule to 6 bottles went down well with customers.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire