StanChart stock hit by stake sale report Standard Chartered hit the bottom of the FTSE 100 on Tuesday on Financial Times reports that Temasek was looking to sell its stake in the bank. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund owns 18 per cent of StanChart, which is active in Asian emerging markets. It has been linked in the past with bid interest from peers seeking to increase their exposure to the faster-growing region, including JPMorgan and Santander. Speculation that a large holding in its stock could soon be on the block sent StanChart's's shares 2.5 per cent lower to £14.44, the biggest single fall on London's benchmark index. Overall, the FTSE 100 inched 22 points higher to 5,852,44, a rise of 0.2 per cent led by oil and financial stocks, which rebounded from pressure over the previous session. But the trading pattern did not look like a return to risk as much as a cautious run higher. The trend for the index bounce above the 5,800 point mark only to meet resistance around 5,900 looked set to remain. "We have seen that the FTSE 100 has found resistance at 5,900 so far," said Sandy Jadeja, technical analyst at City Index. But a break below and more importantly a close below 5,830 by the close of Friday could set the stage for an intermediate term decline heading into October. In the meantime, Petrofac was the best single gainer, up 2 per cent at £16.41. BP gained 0.6 per cent to 445½p. Lloyds Banking Group also appeared on the leaderboard, up 0.9 per cent at 40.4p. Jonathan Sudaria, dealer at London Capital, said: "Since the announcements of further stimulus from the world's central banks, directional conviction has been low. The implicit backstop from central banks is causing havoc with the pricing of risk assets as the unlimited nature of the latest rounds of quantitative easing has left traders anaesthetised to correct markets on bad news.