Asda looked at £1bn N Brown takeover deal Another source said the company is not "for sale" and Lord Allliance and Mr Alliance are not sellers of their respective stakes, which combined together speak for almost 40pc of the company. Still, traders argued some of the UK-based retail giants, such as Tesco, up 2¾ to 303¾p, and J Sainsbury, which rose 2.3 to 288p, might be interested in N Brown. N Brown, which declined to comment, fell 4.2 to 245p as the wider mid-cap index came under pressure. The FTSE 250 index closed down 8.21 points at 10721.44 but the FTSE 100 finished up 12.28 points at 5491.09. Mislav Matejka, a strategist at JP Morgan, said: "The worst case scenario was avoided in Greece with New Democracy in position to form a fragile government. [But] this is not a game changer in our view as the government might not last long. He added: "We think the current short squeeze will end within a few days. The primary driver of the bounce we called for four weeks ago was policy speculation. Investors refrained from cutting risk as the Greek election outcome was increasingly seen as a win-win, the strategist suggested, and most await the next Federal Reserve meeting. He said: "However, soon the policy catalysts will largely be behind us. Markets are then likely to refocus on macro [economics], which remain poor. We think a sustained rebound is unlikely until the activity momentum stabilises. Burberry put on 38p to £13.46 thanks to upbeat comment from Deutsche Bank on luxury retail. Analysts at the broker said: "The luxury sector has never had it so good. Although there are some signs of a slowdown in growth, absolute levels of profitability are at all time highs for most brands, and sector return on capital employed has expanded by 11pp (percentage points) since 2001. Elsewhere, builders' merchant Wolseley fared well following a bullish note from Citigroup. Clyde Lewis, an analyst, said: "Having a bit more confidence about the margin potential, market share gain opportunities and benefit of balance sheet options, we think the stock could get to £50.00 by 2015 with some help from market conditions." The shares perked up 57p to £22.33. Rolls Royce made it onto the leaderboard after it signed a contract worth more than £1bn with Britain's defence ministry to deliver reactor cores for the UK's nuclear-powered submarine fleet. The shares rose 17½ to 839½p. Mining groups had a mixed day. BHP Billiton climbed 29p to £18.29 but Xstrata fell 31.8 to 859.2p as Citigroup predicted that a slowdown in China is likely to continue to weigh on copper prices. David Wilson, an analyst, said: "A sustained rally in the copper prices is only likely when more targeted Chinese consumer market stimulus is introduced and or further US quantitative easing is seen." Mr Wilson added: "We believe the Federal Reserve will continue to keep its powder dry, and expect the copper price to trade mostly sideways to lower over the next month." Glencore International, which is trying to merge with Xstrata, was another poor performer, sliding 12 to 328.4p. "Buy" advice from UBS failed to lift Anglo American. The broker said it is attracted by the growth pipeline, late cycle diversified commodity mix, and further potential savings. Still Anglo American fell 1½p to £21.28. Banks were on the backfoot amid renewed concerns about the eurozone debt crisis and the potential impact on London-listed lenders. Barclays, which has the most exposure to southern European countries, shed 4¾ to 196p. Royal Bank of Scotland took the wooden spoon, dipping 12.3 to 235.3p. Lloyds Banking Group also gave up 1.1 to 30.1p despite positive comments from UBS strategists. Nick Nelson said: "Lloyds' first results demonstrate that the new management team appears to be fixing the bank at an accelerated pace and, while this is negative for near-term earnings, it also does bring forward the point at which Lloyds should be able to deliver meaningful returns to its shareholders through dividends, share price appreciation and capital return." Among the smaller companies, Halma perked up 4.9 to 380.7p after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to "outperform," arguing it is a good defensive investment in the UK capital goods sector. The broker also took up coverage of Renishaw, down 2p to £14.16, with a "neutral" rating and reiterated its "outperform" on Rotork, up 8p to £18.98. Panmure Gordon gave Ashtead a push ahead of full-year results due on Thursday. "We anticipate a positive message with full-year results on Thursday, and believe Ashtead continues to make material progress despite a macro environment which (generally) remains unhelpful at best," said Paul Jones, an analyst at Panmure Gordon. Ashtead gained 0.9 to 233.3p. Cove Energy perked up 2 to 266p amid talk Royal Dutch Shell, up 2½p to £21.20, is about to table a knockout 300p counter-bid for the East Africa oil explorer. Stobart Group shares fell 3.8 to 117.5p after the transport group agreed a £12.4m deal to buy vehicle haulage firm Autologic Holdings, which rose 0.38 to 19¼p.